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
2. This is a Final Office action in response to applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 03/16/2026.
3. Status of the claims:
• Claims 1-2, 6-7, 9-10, 12-13, 18-19, 23-26, 28-29, and 33 have been amended.
• Claims 5, 11, 14, 22, 27, and 30 have been canceled.
• Claims 1-4, 6-10, 12-13, 15-21, 23-26, 28-29, and 31-33 are currently pending and have been examined.
Response to remarks/arguments
4. Applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 03/16/2026 with respect to amended independent claims 1, 9, 18, and 25 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Upon further search and consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of ROY et al. (US 20200187081 A1) and LI et al. (US 20220225448 A1) and PALADUGU et al. (US 20230247513 A1).
5. In response to Applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 03/04/2026 regarding the amended claims, the Examiner acknowledges that the cited references do not explicitly teach the newly recited features as argued by Applicant. However, the system of ROY et al. (US 20200187081 A1) and LI et al. (US 20220225448 A1) and PALADUGU et al. (US 20230247513 A1) cure this deficiency.
Please see the rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
9. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
10. Claims 1-4, 6-8, 18-21, 23-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ROY et al. (US 20200187081 A1) in view of LI et al. (US 20220225448 A1) and further in view of Huawei (Technical support for LTE device to device, UE-to- Network relays for IoT and wearables, May 19, 2017, 11 pages, hereinafter Huawei).
Regarding claim 1, Roy discloses a method comprising: performing, by a user equipment (UE) with an access and mobility management function (AMF), relay UE discovery and authorization (ROY, para. 11, 58, 62: The UE can register with an access and mobility function; wherein the UE is configured to: receive local area data network (LADN) information from a current cell. Moreover, Roy teaches If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail, see also para. 58), wherein the relay UE discovery and authorization (ROY, para. 58: If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail.) comprises: measuring, by the UE, transmission signal quality or signal strength of at least one detectable relay UE (ROY, para. 58: measure the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505. If the relay UE 505 provides the intended LADN services and the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505 is acceptable, the UE 501 can select the relay UE 505 to avail LADN services); determining, by the UE, that the at least one detectable UE is a suitable candidate relay UE based on that the at least one detectable UE meets a signal quality or signal strength threshold determined as the suitable candidate relay UE (Roy, para. 58: If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail. In an embodiment, the information about LADN service capability and availability can be broadcasted in a ‘spare bit’ field of an existing relay announcement message. The UE 501 (acting as the remote UE) can receive the relay announcement message and determine whether the relay UE 505 is providing the LADN services that are intended. The processor 506 can measure the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505. If the relay UE 505 provides the intended LADN services and the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505 is acceptable, the UE 501 can select the relay UE 505 to avail LADN services).
Roy does not appear to explicitly disclose sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF; and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF; and sending, by the UE to a source access node, a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with the at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE; the participating in the handover initiation comprising: receiving, by the UE from the source access node, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE; synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection; and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion.
In the same field of endeavor, LI teaches sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF (LI, FIG. 15, S1502, para. [0285]: relay UE 701 sends a verification request (relay chain ID, relay policy ID, relay UE ID, remote UE info, S-NSSAIs) to the serving AMF 172 to verify the remote UE 102, and optionally to retrieve information for making a determination of whether to accept the remote UE's 102 request to join the relay chain.); and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF (LI, FIG. 15, S1504, para. 195, 284-288: AMF ‘172 returns the results and the information to the relay UE 701. Step S1505: once the relay UE 701 receives the response from AMF 172, it will decide whether to allow the remote UE 102 to join the existing relay chain. Moreover, Li teaches a UE needs to be authenticated and authorized by the network for using the multi-hop relay service as a relay UE, a remote UE or an intermediate UE, see also para. [0195]); sending, by the UE to a source access node, a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with the at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE (Li, Fig. 16A, para. [0385]-[0387]: Relay UE (as UE) sends a message that includes (relay UE ID, relay policy, registration request). Li further teaches when the relay UE determines whether there is a relay chain association for the remote UE, the relay UE can (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 16 (FIGS. 16A-16B)) determine, by its control circuitry, whether to accept the remote UE to join the relay chain (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15)); synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection (Li, para. [0234][0254]: PC5 link establishment: after selecting the relay/intermediate UE, the UE will request to establish a PC5 link. Moreover, Li teaches relay UE 701 sends PC5 link establishment response to the remote UE 102, which includes the registration accept message from the core network, and the decision whether remote UE 102 can join the relay chain); and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion (Li, Fig. 13, para. [0232][0309]: In order to enable the distributed relay chain formation, the relay UE 701 can get authentication and authorization from core network to do so. This could be done during registration or registration update process for the relay UE 701. PCF 184 can determine to what extent the relay UE 701 can manage the relay chain).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy with the teaching of Li to include the above features such as sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF; and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF; synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection; and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion as taught by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for registering a user equipment (UE) to enable a multi-hop relay service in a wireless communication network includes transmitting a registration request message to the wireless communication network directly or via an intermediate UE (para. [0006]).
The combination of Roy and Li does not appear to disclose participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation; detaching, by the UE, from the source access node.
In the same field of endeavor, Huawei teaches participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: section 8, Source eNB to provide the eRemote UE and eRelay UE relationship towards to target eNB); detaching, by the UE, from the source access node (Huawei, Figure 1-1, pages 4-7, section 5.x.3.2 Scenario 2a-2: RRC connection reconfiguration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation; detaching, by the UE, from the source access node as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 2, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 1, however, Huawei further teaches the relay UE information report comprising at least one of UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE measurements of at least one connection between the UE and the at least one authorized relay UE, or cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7, section 2: The eRemote UE reports to the serving eNB with the information of selected eRelay UE, e.g., via measurement report message. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 3, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 1, Huawei further teaches the message being sent over a Uu interface (Huawei, page 6: the evolved remote UE communicates directly with the eNB via Uu interface).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the message being sent over a Uu interface as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 4, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 1, however, Huawei teaches further comprising: performing, by the UE, relay UE discovery and authorization (Huawei, pages 5 and 7: The eRemote UE performs relay discovery procedure and selects a suitable eRelay UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as performing, by the UE, relay UE discovery and authorization as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 6, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 1, however, Huawei further teaches the participating in the handover initiation comprising: receiving first cell identity information of a cell of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, page 6: the evolved remote UE communicates directly with the eNB via Uu interface, and then switches to the evolved relay UE served by a cell belonging to another eNB which is different from the previous serving cell of the evolved remote UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as receiving first cell identity information of a cell of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 7, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 6, however, Huawei further teaches the participating in the handover completion comprising: setting up, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, the sidelink connection (Huawei, page 5, scenario 5.x.3.1 Solution 2a-1: The UE may be able to set up the PC5 connection before the handover. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization); and sending, by the UE to the cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, a reconfiguration complete message (Huawei, page 4, Figure 1-1: eRemote UE / eRelay UE sends RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message to eNB. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as setting up, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, the sidelink connection and sending, by the UE to the cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, a reconfiguration complete message as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 8, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the method of claim 6, however, Huawei further teaches the cell and the source access node being the same (Huawei, page 4, Figure 1-1: the cell is the source access node).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the cell and the source access node being the same as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 18, Huawei discloses a user equipment (UE) comprising: one or more processors (Remote UE inherently comprises at least one processor); and a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the UE to perform operations including: performing, by a user equipment (UE) with an access and mobility management function (AMF), relay UE discovery and authorization (ROY, para. 11, 58, 62: The UE can register with an access and mobility function; wherein the UE is configured to: receive local area data network (LADN) information from a current cell. Moreover, Roy teaches If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail, see also para. 58), wherein the relay UE discovery and authorization (ROY, para. 58: If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail.) comprises: measuring, by the UE, transmission signal quality or signal strength of at least one detectable relay UE (ROY, para. 58: measure the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505. If the relay UE 505 provides the intended LADN services and the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505 is acceptable, the UE 501 can select the relay UE 505 to avail LADN services); determining, by the UE, that the at least one detectable UE is a suitable candidate relay UE based on that the at least one detectable UE meets a signal quality or signal strength threshold determined as the suitable candidate relay UE (Roy, para. 58: If the UE 501 acts as a remote UE (due to inability to connect to the base station 502), the UE 501 can avail intended LADN services through the relay UE 505. The relay UE 505 can broadcast a relay announcement message (discovery message) that indicates capability of the relay UE 505 to provide LADN service and availability of LADN service that the UE 501 intends to avail. In an embodiment, the information about LADN service capability and availability can be broadcasted in a ‘spare bit’ field of an existing relay announcement message. The UE 501 (acting as the remote UE) can receive the relay announcement message and determine whether the relay UE 505 is providing the LADN services that are intended. The processor 506 can measure the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505. If the relay UE 505 provides the intended LADN services and the strength and/or quality of the signals received from the relay UE 505 is acceptable, the UE 501 can select the relay UE 505 to avail LADN services).
Roy does not appear to explicitly disclose sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF; and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF; and sending, by the UE to a source access node, a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with the at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE; the participating in the handover initiation comprising: receiving, by the UE from the source access node, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE; synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection; and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion.
In the same field of endeavor, LI teaches sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF (LI, FIG. 15, S1502, para. [0285]: relay UE 701 sends a verification request (relay chain ID, relay policy ID, relay UE ID, remote UE info, S-NSSAIs) to the serving AMF 172 to verify the remote UE 102, and optionally to retrieve information for making a determination of whether to accept the remote UE's 102 request to join the relay chain.); and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF (LI, FIG. 15, S1504, para. 195, 284-288: AMF ‘172 returns the results and the information to the relay UE 701. Step S1505: once the relay UE 701 receives the response from AMF 172, it will decide whether to allow the remote UE 102 to join the existing relay chain. Moreover, Li teaches a UE needs to be authenticated and authorized by the network for using the multi-hop relay service as a relay UE, a remote UE or an intermediate UE, see also para. [0195]); sending, by the UE to a source access node, a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with the at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE (Li, Fig. 16A, para. [0385]-[0387]: Relay UE (as UE) sends a message that includes (relay UE ID, relay policy, registration request). Li further teaches when the relay UE determines whether there is a relay chain association for the remote UE, the relay UE can (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 16 (FIGS. 16A-16B)) determine, by its control circuitry, whether to accept the remote UE to join the relay chain (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15)); synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection (Li, para. [0234][0254]: PC5 link establishment: after selecting the relay/intermediate UE, the UE will request to establish a PC5 link. Moreover, Li teaches relay UE 701 sends PC5 link establishment response to the remote UE 102, which includes the registration accept message from the core network, and the decision whether remote UE 102 can join the relay chain); and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion (Li, Fig. 13, para. [0232][0309]: In order to enable the distributed relay chain formation, the relay UE 701 can get authentication and authorization from core network to do so. This could be done during registration or registration update process for the relay UE 701. PCF 184 can determine to what extent the relay UE 701 can manage the relay chain).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy with the teaching of Li to include the above features such as sending, by the UE, identification information of at least one suitable candidate relay UE detectable by the UE to the AMF; and receiving, by the UE, information associated with at least one authorized relay UE from the AMF; synchronizing, by the UE, with the at least one authorized relay UE operating as a relay UE for communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection; and participating, by the UE with the at least one authorized relay UE, in a handover completion as taught by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for registering a user equipment (UE) to enable a multi-hop relay service in a wireless communication network includes transmitting a registration request message to the wireless communication network directly or via an intermediate UE (para. [0006]).
The combination of Roy and Li does not appear to disclose participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation; detaching, by the UE, from the source access node.
In the same field of endeavor, Huawei teaches participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: section 8, Source eNB to provide the eRemote UE and eRelay UE relationship towards to target eNB); detaching, by the UE, from the source access node (Huawei, Figure 1-1, pages 4-7, section 5.x.3.2 Scenario 2a-2: RRC connection reconfiguration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as participating, by the UE with the source access node, in a handover initiation; detaching, by the UE, from the source access node as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 19, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the UE of claim 18, however, Huawei further teaches the relay UE information report comprising at least one of UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE, measurements of at least one connection between the UE and the at least one authorized relay UE, or cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7, section 2: The eRemote UE reports to the serving eNB with the information of selected eRelay UE, e.g., via measurement report message. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 20, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the UE of claim 18, however, Huawei further teaches the message being sent over a Uu interface (Huawei, page 6: the evolved remote UE communicates directly with the eNB via Uu interface).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the message being sent over a Uu interface as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 21, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the UE of claim 18, however, Huawei further teaches the operations further comprising: performing relay UE discovery and authorization (Huawei, pages 5 and 7: The eRemote UE performs relay discovery procedure and selects a suitable eRelay UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as performing relay UE discovery and authorization as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 23, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose the UE of claim 18, however, Huawei further teaches the participating in the handover initiation comprising: receiving first cell identity information of a cell of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, page 6: the evolved remote UE communicates directly with the eNB via Uu interface, and then switches to the evolved relay UE served by a cell belonging to another eNB which is different from the previous serving cell of the evolved remote UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as receiving first cell identity information of a cell of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 24, Roy, Li, and Huawei disclose discloses the UE of claim 23, however, Huawei further teaches the participating in the handover completion comprising: setting up, with the at least one authorized relay UE, the sidelink connection (Huawei, page 5, scenario 5.x.3.1 Solution 2a-1: The UE may be able to set up the PC5 connection before the handover. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization); and sending, to the cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, a reconfiguration complete message (Huawei, page 4, Figure 1-1: eRemote UE / eRelay UE sends RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete message to eNB. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as setting up, with the at least one authorized relay UE, the sidelink connection and sending, to the cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, a reconfiguration complete message as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
11. Claims 9-10, 12-13, 15-17, 25-26, 28-29, 31-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ROY et al. (US 20200187081 A1), LI et al. (US 20220225448 A1) in view of Huawei (Technical support for LTE device to device, UE-to- Network relays for IoT and wearables, May 19, 2017, 11 pages, hereinafter Huawei) and further in view of PALADUGU et al. (US 20230247513 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Roy discloses a method comprising: determining, by the source access node, to perform a handover in accordance with the relay UE information report (Roy, para. [0062]: When the UE 501 is camped in the base station 502, after a LADN service request from the UE 501 is accepted, the AMF 503 can send a current LADN services subscription list to the base station 502. When the UE 501 sends the measurement report to the base station 502, the base station 502, aware of the LADN services expected by the UE 501, chooses a target cell for handover).
Roy does not appear to disclose initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover; receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF).
In the same of endeavor, Li teaches initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover (Li, para. [0081][0195]: Each of the gNode-Bs 180a and 180b can be associated with a particular cell and can be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the uplink and/or downlink); receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF) (Li, Fig. 16A, para. [0385]-[0387]: Relay UE (as UE) sends a message that includes (relay UE ID, relay policy, registration request). Li further teaches when the relay UE determines whether there is a relay chain association for the remote UE, the relay UE can (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 16 (FIGS. 16A-16B)) determine, by its control circuitry, whether to accept the remote UE to join the relay chain (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15). Li further teaches wherein the core network asset hosts an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), see also Li, [0379]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy with the teaching of Li to include the above features such as initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover and receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF) as taught by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for registering a user equipment (UE) to enable a multi-hop relay service in a wireless communication network includes transmitting a registration request message to the wireless communication network directly or via an intermediate UE (para. [0006]).
The combination of Roy and Li does not appear to disclose the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection, the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE; sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE.
In the same field of endeavor, Huawei teaches the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: step 6: PC5 connection setup. In step 9, RRC connection reconfig.complete relaying Remote UE to the Target eNB. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization), the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: Remote UE can be different from Relay UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization); sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, page 7: source eNB sends to the remote UE RRC connection reconfig incl mobilitycontrolinfo. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection, the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE; sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
The combination of prior arts does not disclose releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE.
In the same field of endeavor, releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE (PALADUGU, para. [0066]: At 595, the source base station 102-a may release the remote UE context as well).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy, Li and Huawei with the teaching of PALADUGU to include the above features such as releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide relay services and/or select the relay UE to provide relay services based on the measured channel quality (PALADUGU, para. [0045]).
Regarding claim 10, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, however, Huawei further teaches the relay UE information report comprising at least one of UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE, measurements of at least one connection between the UE and the at least one authorized relay UE, or cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7, section 2: The eRemote UE reports to the serving eNB with the information of selected eRelay UE, e.g., via measurement report message. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 12, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, the initiating the handover comprising: receiving, by the source access node from the serving cell, a handover request acknowledgement (Huawei, page 9, section 5: eNB2 sends the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message of eRelay UE to the eNB1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as receiving, by the source access node from the serving cell, a handover request acknowledgement as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 13, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, however, Huawei teaches further comprising: participating, by the source access node with the UE, in a handover initiation (Huawei, pages 5-7, Figure 2a-2: section 8, eNB1 to eNB2 move: Source eNB to provide the eRemote UE and eRelay UE relationship towards to target eNB), the participating in the handover initiation comprising the sending, from the source access node to the UE, the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2b-1, page 8: source nodeB sends to the remote UE, UE id info of the relay UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as participating, by the source access node with the UE, in a handover initiation, the participating in the handover initiation comprising the sending, from the source access node to the UE, the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 15, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, however, Huawei teaches further comprising: transferring, by the source access node to the serving cell, sequence number status (Huawei, page 7, section 8: The source eNB sends SN Status Transfer to the target eNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as transferring, by the source access node to the serving cell, sequence number status as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 16, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, however, Huawei teaches further comprising: sending, by the source access node to the serving cell, a data forwarding end marker for the UE (Huawei, page 6, Figure 2a-1: The source eNB sends the RRC Measurement Control to the serving cell).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as sending, by the source access node to the serving cell, a data forwarding end marker for the UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 17, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 9, however, Huawei further teaches the source access node and the serving cell being the same (Huawei, page 4, Figure 1-1: the cell can be the source access node).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the source access node and the serving cell being the same as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 25, Roy discloses an access node comprising: one or more processors (the access node inherently comprises at least one processor); and a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the access node to perform operations including: determining, by the source access node, to perform a handover in accordance with the relay UE information report (Roy, para. [0062]: When the UE 501 is camped in the base station 502, after a LADN service request from the UE 501 is accepted, the AMF 503 can send a current LADN services subscription list to the base station 502. When the UE 501 sends the measurement report to the base station 502, the base station 502, aware of the LADN services expected by the UE 501, chooses a target cell for handover).
Roy does not appear to disclose initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover; receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF).
In the same of endeavor, Li teaches initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover (Li, para. [0081][0195]: Each of the gNode-Bs 180a and 180b can be associated with a particular cell and can be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the uplink and/or downlink); receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF) (Li, Fig. 16A, para. [0385]-[0387]: Relay UE (as UE) sends a message that includes (relay UE ID, relay policy, registration request). Li further teaches when the relay UE determines whether there is a relay chain association for the remote UE, the relay UE can (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 16 (FIGS. 16A-16B)) determine, by its control circuitry, whether to accept the remote UE to join the relay chain (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15). Li further teaches wherein the core network asset hosts an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), see also Li, [0379]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy with the teaching of Li to include the above features such as initiating, by the source access node to a serving cell of the at least one authorized relay UE, the handover and receiving, by a source access node from a user equipment (UE), a message including a relay UE information report comprising information associated with at least one authorized relay UE detectable by the UE and authorized by an access and mobility management function (AMF) as taught by Li. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide a method for registering a user equipment (UE) to enable a multi-hop relay service in a wireless communication network includes transmitting a registration request message to the wireless communication network directly or via an intermediate UE (para. [0006]).
The combination of Roy and Li does not appear to disclose the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection, the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE; sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE.
In the same field of endeavor, Huawei teaches the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: step 6: PC5 connection setup. In step 9, RRC connection reconfig.complete relaying Remote UE to the Target eNB. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization), the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7: Remote UE can be different from Relay UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization); sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, page 7: source eNB sends to the remote UE RRC connection reconfig incl mobilitycontrolinfo. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the determining to perform the handover comprising: selecting at least one authorized relay UE to relay communication between the UE and a target access node over a sidelink connection, the at least one authorized relay UE being different from the UE; sending, from the source access node to the UE, UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
The combination of prior arts does not disclose releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE.
In the same field of endeavor, releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE (PALADUGU, para. [0066]: At 595, the source base station 102-a may release the remote UE context as well).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy, Li and Huawei with the teaching of PALADUGU to include the above features such as releasing, by the source access node, a UE context of the UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide relay services and/or select the relay UE to provide relay services based on the measured channel quality (PALADUGU, para. [0045]).
Regarding claim 26, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the access node of claim 25, the relay UE information report comprising at least one of UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE, measurements of at least one connection between the UE and the at least one authorized relay UE, or cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2a-2, page 7, section 2: The eRemote UE reports to the serving eNB with the information of selected eRelay UE, e.g., via measurement report message Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 28, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the access node of claim 25, however, Huawei further teaches the initiating the handover comprising: receiving, from the serving cell, a handover request acknowledgement (Huawei, page 9, section 5: eNB2 sends the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message of eRelay UE to the eNB1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as receiving, from the serving cell, a handover request acknowledgement as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 29, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the access node of claim 25, however, Huawei further teaches the operations further comprising: participating, with the UE, in a handover initiation (Huawei, pages 5-7, Figure 2a-2: section 8, eNB1 to eNB2 move: Source eNB to provide the eRemote UE and eRelay UE relationship towards to target eNB), the participating in the handover initiation comprising the sending, to the UE, the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figure 2b-1, page 8: source nodeB sends to the remote UE, UE id info of the relay UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Huawei as modified by CHENG with the teaching of Ohlsson to include the above features such as participating, with the UE, in a handover initiation, the participating in the handover initiation comprising the sending, to the UE, the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to enable the radio network node to receive the capability information in an efficient and secure manner leading to an improved performance of the wireless communication network.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as participating, with the UE, in a handover initiation, the participating in the handover initiation comprising the sending, to the UE, the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 31, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the access node of claim 25, however, Huawei further teaches the operations further comprising: transferring, to the serving cell, sequence number status (Huawei, page 7, section 8: The source eNB sends SN Status Transfer to the target eNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 32, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the access node of claim 25, however, Huawei further teaches further comprising: sending, to the serving cell, a data forwarding end marker for the UE (Huawei, page 6, Figure 2a-1: The source eNB sends the RRC Measurement Control to the serving cell for the UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as cell identity information of cells of the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Regarding claim 33, Roy, Li, Huawei, and PALADUGU disclose the method of claim 12, however, Huawei further discloses the handover request acknowledgement indicating: the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE, identity information of the target access node, and a data radio bearer (DRB) configuration for the UE to establish the sidelink connection with the at least one authorized relay UE (Huawei, Figures 1-1, 3-1, pages 4 and 9: handover request ACK for relay UE and remote UE and identity info of target eNB2. Moreover, Huawei teaches PC5-U RRC Connection Request/setup/complete with relay UE. Moreover, page 5 of Huawei teaches relay UE authorization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Roy and Li with the teaching of Huawei to include the above features such as the UE identity information of the at least one authorized relay UE, identity information of the target access node, and a data radio bearer (DRB) configuration for the UE to establish the sidelink connection with the at least one authorized relay UE as taught by Huawei. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform relay discovery procedure and select a suitable relay UE (Huawei, page 7, section 1).
Conclusion
12. 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.
13. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN F VOLTAIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-3953. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:30 PM.
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/JEAN F VOLTAIRE/Examiner, Art Unit 2417 /PAUL H. MASUR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
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