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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/24/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 02/24/2026.
Claims 1-14, 16-21 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1, 6, 17 have been amended.
No new claim has been added and claims 15 has been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claim 1 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments, see “Hong discloses a method to perform reselection for the a relay device based on detecting RLF for a PC5 RRC connection. (See Hong abstract). Specifically, Hong discloses when the relay UE (Remote UE S 1240 in FIG. 12 of Hong) disconnects with the Base station (Examiner interprets Remote UE S 1240 in Hong FIG. 12 as relay UE), the remote UE connects with the gNG directly, and receive a message for SL recovery (S1230). (See Hong Para. [0179]-[0187] and FIG. 12). The remote UE (Examiner interprets Relay UE in Hong FIG. 12 as remote UE) is still connected to both the BS and the Relay UE. The remote UE keeps sending messages to BS and the relay UE, while waiting for the relay UE to figure out another way to connect back to BS (either through direct connection or through another remote UE). In other words, Hong focuses on solving the RLF between the remote UE and the relay UE while both the remote UE and the relay UE are within the coverage area of the cell serving cell of the gNB or base station.
In contrast, in the present application, the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS while the relay UE is within the coverage area of a serving cell of the BS. (See FIG. 1 & 2). When the Uu link between relay UE 103 and BS 102 breaks, UE 101 receives a notification message, looks for or reselect another relay UE, while keeps being connected to the current UE 103, and may be eventually connect back to BS. Id. For at least this reason, Hong does not teach or suggest "wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS" as recited in amended claim 1.
The other cited references do not cure the deficiencies of Xu. Accordingly, Applicant requests that the rejection of claim 1 be withdrawn. In addition, independent claims 6 and 17 are amended substantially similar to the subject matter of independent claim 1.” on pages 10-11, filed on 02/24/2026 , with respect to 3GppR22007101 in view of WANG , have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS.”. Said limitations are newly added to the amended Claim 1 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 103 rejection below, with newly identified prior art teachings from newly found references HU et al. (US 20230113249 A1; hereinafter as “HU”), thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Regarding all dependent claims: the applicant alleges that all dependent claims are allowable since they depend from all the independent claims above. The examiner respectfully disagrees in view of the above explanation of independent claims. Thus the rejection is deemed proper.
Examiner’s NOTE: there are lots of “OR” option or “at least one of” options through out the claims. The examiner will only address one of those options in the rejection below unless otherwise mention.
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.
Claims 1-14, 16-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #111e; R2-2007101 (Online, August 17th – 28th 2020; Agenda Item: 8.7.3; Source: Apple; Title: Discussion on Control Plane mechanisms for Layer 2 Relay ; Document for: Decision ; hereinafter as “3GppR22007101”;Provided in Prior Art Listing dated 11/26/2024 ) in view of HONG et al. (US 20220030493 A1; hereinafter as “HONG”) and further in view of HU et al. (US 20230113249 A1; hereinafter as “HU”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to 3GPPR22007101 unless otherwise mentioned.
With respect to independence claim:
Regarding claim 1, 3GPPR22007101 teaches,
An apparatus (see figure 1. Relay UE which in connects with UE and gNB in wireless communication ) for wireless communication, comprising:
PNG
media_image1.png
315
823
media_image1.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image2.png
351
788
media_image2.png
Greyscale
at least one memory (Relay UE must have memory); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to (relay UE must have a processor; (processor and memory must be connected together):
establish a Uu Radio resource control (RRC) connection of a link between a relay user equipment (UE) (==Relay UE in Fig. 1) and a base station (BS) (==gNB in Fig. 1) (see fig. 1 where Relay UE established UU-RRC connection to gNB (==Base Station in Claim); Aforesaid Relay UE has UU-RRC connection with gNB in Fig. 1; “ relay UE has ….. a Uu RRC connection to the gNB.”: Section 2.1 )
establish a PC5 RRC connection of a link between a first UE (==Remote UE in Fig. 1) and the relay UE (aforesaid Relay UE has PC5-RRC connection with Remote UE; “relay UE has a PC5-RRC connection with Remote UE …. ”: Section 2.1 ) ; and
transmit at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS (When Relay UE detects a radio link failure (RLF) between Relay UE and gNB; aforesaid Relay UE “ inform all its connected remote UE(s) about Uu link RLF, so that remote UE can take necessary actions to continue its connection to NW, e.g., relay reselection” Section 2.1: Proposal 1; NOTE: Crossed/Missed limitation will be addressed by another reference below).
While 3GPPR22007101 teaches, “transmit to the first UE , wherein associated with at least one of: a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS; or successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS ” ;
3GPPR22007101 does not expressively disclose:
“wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS;
“transmit a notification to the first UE , wherein the notification is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS,
and
in response to determining that the notification is associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, suspend a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS.
HONG, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
PNG
media_image3.png
527
563
media_image3.png
Greyscale
“transmit a notification to the first UE (Remote UE, NOTE: the examiner interpreted Fig. 12 RELAY UE to be Remote UE and Fig. 12 Remote UE to be RELAY UE) (RELAY UE is connected to gNB and Remote UE) , wherein the notification is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS ( “ relay UE(s) having PC5 connection(s) with the remote UE.”: [0182]; see fig 12 where RELAY UE transmits RLF report to Remote UE using sidelink communication : Fig. 12, S1220 “ In step S1220, the remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here ) may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL ( to the Remote UE). For example, a message informing (==notification ) the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.”: [1079]-[0183]),
and
in response to determining that the notification is associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, suspend a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS (see fig 12 where RELAY UE transmits Uu-RLF report to Remote UE using sidelink communication : Fig. 12, S1220 “ In step S1220, the remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here ) may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL ( to the Remote UE). For example, a message informing (==notification ) the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.”: [0183]; “ based on detecting the RLF for the PC5 RRC connection, a signaling radio bearer (SRB) and a data radio bearer (DRB) related to the PC5 RRC connection between the first device and the second device may be suspended.”: [0192]; If there Radio Link Fail (RFL) in Uu Link between Relay UE and Base Station, Relay UE suspends transmission to all Uu links including data radio bearer (DRB) is suspended.: [0181]). ]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
While 3GPPR22007101 teaches that an apparatus or Relay UE establish a PC5 RRC connection the Remote UE, the combination of 3GPPR22007101 and HONG does not expressive disclose: “wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS;
HU, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
PNG
media_image4.png
416
342
media_image4.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image5.png
381
381
media_image5.png
Greyscale
wherein the first UE (==remote UE or UE 501 in Fig 5) is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS (==Base Station 312A in Fig. 5) (remote UE 501 and Relay UE 392 or Relay 502 are in PC5 RRC connection and Relay UE 392 (or 502) and Base Station 312a is in Uu RRC connection as shown in Fig. 5 Fig. 1 : Relay UE connect with BS, “ The connection to be established with the network node might be an RRC connection. It might be a Uu RRC connection—i.e., a connection over the Uu interface—for example an NR Uu RRC connection.”: [0089], D2D link are in PC5 RRC connection : [0110]; Remote UE 501 is outside the coverage of serving Base Station 312a in Fig. 5 : “the multi-hop sidelink network is partially within the cellular network coverage 313a provided by network node 312a. More specifically, UEs 392 and 502 are within the coverage area of the network node 312a, i.e. are within communication range of the network node 312a. UE 501 is outside the coverage area of network node 312a, and thus cannot communicate with the network node over the Uu interface.”: [0063]; Radio Link Failure (RLF) can happen between Remote UE 501 and Relay 502/392 in Fig. 5 or between Relay UE 502 and BS : [0140]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG to include the above recited limitations as taught by HU. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide public safety communications, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, the internet-of-things (IoT), and wearable devices without support from serving base station. (HU; [0002]-[0005]).
Regarding claim 6, 3GPPR22007101 teaches,
An apparatus (see figure 1. Relay UE which in connects with UE and gNB in wireless communication ) for wireless communication, comprising:
PNG
media_image1.png
315
823
media_image1.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image2.png
351
788
media_image2.png
Greyscale
at least one memory (Relay UE must have memory); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to (relay UE must have a processor; (processor and memory must be connected together):
establish a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) connection of a link between a first user equipment (UE) (==Remote UE ) and a relay UE (Relay UE) (aforesaid Relay UE has PC5-RRC connection with Remote UE; “relay UE has a PC5-RRC connection with Remote UE …. ”: Section 2.1 ),
wherein a Uu RRC connection of a link between the relay UE and a base station (BS) has been established (==gNB in Fig. 1) (see fig. 1 where Relay UE established UU-RRC connection to gNB (==Base Station in Claim); Aforesaid Relay UE has UU-RRC connection with gNB in Fig. 1; “ relay UE has ….. a Uu RRC connection to the gNB.”: Section 2.1 ); and
receive
wherein received from the BS comprises a request to perform a relay reselection procedure,
wherein received from the relay UE is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or
a successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS (When Relay UE detects a radio link failure (RLF) between Relay UE and gNB; aforesaid Relay UE “ inform all its connected remote UE(s) about Uu link RLF, so that remote UE can take necessary actions to continue its connection to NW, e.g., relay reselection” Section 2.1: Proposal 1; NOTE: Crossed/Missed limitation will be addressed by another reference below).
While 3GPPR22007101 teaches, “receive from one of the BS or the relay UE,
wherein received from the BS comprises a request to perform a relay reselection procedure,
wherein received from the relay UE is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or a successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
3GPPR22007101 does not expressively disclose
“wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS;
“receive a notification from one of the BS or the relay UE,
wherein the notification received from the BS comprises a request to perform a relay reselection procedure,
wherein the notification received from the relay UE is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or a successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
and in response to receiving the notification associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, suspend a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS.
HONG, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
PNG
media_image3.png
527
563
media_image3.png
Greyscale
“receive a notification from one of the BS or the relay UE UE (Remote UE, NOTE: the examiner interpreted Fig. 12 RELAY UE to be Remote UE and Fig. 12 Remote UE to be RELAY UE) (RELAY UE is connected to gNB and Remote UE),
wherein the notification received from the BS comprises a request to perform a relay reselection procedure (aforesaid Remote UE “ performing reselection for the relay device based on detecting the RLF for the PC5 RRC connection.”:[abstract]; “ The user equipment (UE) may efficiently perform relay reselection”: [0010]-[0011]; “remote UE may perform a procedure for detecting (new) relay UE(s).”: [0173]; “ According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, if the SL RLF or the Uu RLF occurs, the corresponding link may be quickly recovered. For example, if the remote UE fails to detect SL HARQ feedback from the relay UE even though the remote UE has (consecutively) transmitted data N times to the relay UE, the remote UE may determine that an RLF has occurred in the link between the remote UE and the relay UE. Herein, N may be a positive integer value configured for the remote UE. In this case, the remote UE may trigger a procedure for reselecting a new relay UE. Therefore, the remote UE can quickly select a new relay UE, and communication between the remote UE and the base station can be quickly resumed via the new relay UE.”:[0187]),
wherein the notification received from the relay UE is associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS;
or a successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS ( “ relay UE(s) having PC5 connection(s) with the remote UE.”: {0182]; see fig 12 where RELAY UE transmits RLF report to Remote UE using sidelink communication : Fig. 12, S1220 “ In step S1220, the remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here ) may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL ( to the Remote UE). For example, a message informing (==notification ) the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.”: -[1079]-[0183]) ;
and in response to receiving the notification associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, suspend a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS
(see fig 12 where RELAY UE transmits Uu-RLF report to Remote UE using sidelink communication : Fig. 12, S1220 “ In step S1220, the remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here ) may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL ( to the Remote UE). For example, a message informing (==notification ) the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.”: [0183]; “based on detecting the RLF for the PC5 RRC connection, a signaling radio bearer (SRB) and a data radio bearer (DRB) related to the PC5 RRC connection between the first device and the second device may be suspended.”: [0192]; If there Radio Link Fail (RFL) in Uu Link between Relay UE and Base Station, Relay UE suspends transmission to all Uu links including data radio bearer (DRB) is suspended:[0181]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG: [0009-0010]).
While 3GPPR22007101 teaches that an apparatus or Relay UE establish a PC5 RRC connection the Remote UE, the combination of 3GPPR22007101 and HONG does not expressive disclose: “wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS;
HU, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
PNG
media_image4.png
416
342
media_image4.png
Greyscale
PNG
media_image5.png
381
381
media_image5.png
Greyscale
wherein the first UE (==remote UE or UE 501 in Fig 5) is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS (==Base Station 312A in Fig. 5) (remote UE 501 and Relay UE 392 or Relay 502 are in PC5 RRC connection and Relay UE 392 (or 502) and Base Station 312a is in Uu RRC connection as shown in Fig. 5 Fig. 1 : Relay UE connect with BS, “ The connection to be established with the network node might be an RRC connection. It might be a Uu RRC connection—i.e., a connection over the Uu interface—for example an NR Uu RRC connection.”: [0089], D2D link are in PC5 RRC connection : [0110]; Remote UE 501 is outside the coverage of serving Base Station 312a in Fig. 5 : “the multi-hop sidelink network is partially within the cellular network coverage 313a provided by network node 312a. More specifically, UEs 392 and 502 are within the coverage area of the network node 312a, i.e. are within communication range of the network node 312a. UE 501 is outside the coverage area of network node 312a, and thus cannot communicate with the network node over the Uu interface.”: [0063]; Radio Link Failure (RLF) can happen between Remote UE 501 and Relay 502/392 in Fig. 5 or between Relay UE 502 and BS : [0140]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG to include the above recited limitations as taught by HU. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide public safety communications, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, the internet-of-things (IoT), and wearable devices without support from serving base station. (HU; [0002]-[0005]).
Regarding claim 17, 3GPPR22007101 teaches, A method, comprising: establishing a Uu radio resource control (RRC) connection of a link between a relay user equipment (UE) and a base station (BS); establishing a PC5 RRC connection of a link between a first UE and the relay UE, wherein the first UE is outside coverage area of a serving cell of the BS; and transmitting a notification to the first UE, wherein the notification is associated with at least one of: a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS; a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS; or a successful RLF recovery of the link between the relay UE and the BS; and in response to determining that the notification is associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, suspend a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS. (Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1).
With respect to dependence claim:
Regarding claim 2, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, 3GPPR22007101 teaches, wherein the notification comprises a RLF notification, and the RLF notification is transmitted from the relay UE in response to at least one of:
detecting a RLF in the link between the relay UE and the BS;
the relay UE performing a fast master cell group (MCG) link recovery procedure on the link between the relay UE and the BS; or 24the relay UE performing a RRC re-establishment procedure on the link 1 between the relay UE and the BS ( “, the Relay UE detecting RLF need immediately inform all its connected remote UE(s) about Uu link RLF, so that remote UE can take necessary actions to continue its connection to NW, e.g., relay reselection.”; Section 2.1 Proposal 1).
Regarding claim 3, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches, wherein the notification comprises a successful recovery notification, and the successful recovery notification is transmitted from the relay UE in response to at least one of:
successfully completing a fast master cell group (MCG)MCG link recovery procedure on the link between the relay UE and the BS; or
successfully completing a RRC re-establishment procedure on the link between the relay UE and the BS ( “Referring to FIG. 10, a remote UE may be configured with an SL-RLF timer for selecting a relay UE. For example, the remote UE may receive a configuration related to a timer for selecting the relay UE, from the base station. For example, the remote UE may receive a configuration related to a timer for selecting the relay UE, from other UE(s). For example, the remote UE may perform recovery operation while the configured timer operates.”: [0138]; “ For example, the remote UE may perform a procedure for recovering the Uu link by exchanging information for recovery of the Uu link with the network through PC5 link. This may be possible via relay UE(s) having PC5 connection(s) with the remote UE. For example, if there is no relay UE connected to the remote UE through PC5, the remote UE may detect new relay UE(s) through a discovery procedure.
[0183] In step S1220, the remote UE may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL. For example, a message informing the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.
[0184] In step S1230, the network may transmit a message for recovering the Uu link of the remote UE to the relay UE. For example, the message for recovering the Uu link of the remote UE may be transmitted to the remote UE via the relay UE. For example, the message may include reconfiguration with sync information for performing PCell change (i.e., handover).
[0185] In step S1240, the remote UE may receive a message for the recovery procedure via the relay UE (e.g., through the PC5 link), and the remote UE may change the PCell, and the remote UE may resume transmission through the suspended SRB/DRB.”: {0182]-[0185]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 4, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches, wherein the notification is-comprises a recovery failure notification, and the recovery failure notification is transmitted from the relay UE in response to at least one of:
a failure to complete a RRC re-establishment procedure on the link
between the relay UE and the BS; or
an expiry of a timer for a transmission of a RRC re-establishment request message ( “ For example, if the RLF of the Uu link occurs in the remote UE, the remote UE may suspend transmission of all Uu links. For example, if the RLF of the Uu link occurs in the remote UE, the remote UE may suspend transmission of all Uu links except for SRB0. Herein, for example, SRB1, SRB2 and DRB may be suspended. Additionally, for example, the remote UE may not perform an RRC re-establishment procedure for the Uu link. For convenience of description, the RLF of the Uu link may be referred to as Uu RLF.”: [0181]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 5, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches,
The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein the notification is transmitted by at least one of:
a medium access control control element (MAC CE);
RRC signaling; or
a control packet data unit (PDU) in an adaptation layer of the relay UE ( “Specifically, for example, the remote UE may transmit the first SCI to the relay UE through the PSCCH, and the remote UE may transmit the second SCI and the MAC PDU to the relay UE through the PSSCH. In this case, for example, the remote UE and/or the relay UE may determine the PSFCH resource related to the PSSCH based on an index of a subchannel and a slot related to the PSSCH. In this case, for example, if the remote UE fails to detect HARQ feedback for the MAC PDU on the PSFCH resource, the remote UE may retransmit the MAC PDU through the PSSCH. For example, if the number of (re)transmissions for the MAC PDU reaches a threshold configured for the remote UE, the remote UE may detect the SL RLF for an RRC connection between the remote UE and the relay UE. That is, for example, if the number of times the remote UE fails to detect HARQ feedback for the MAC PDU reaches a threshold configured for the remote UE, the remote UE may detect the SL RLF for an RRC connection between the remote UE and the relay UE. For example, if the number of times the remote UE consecutively fails to detect HARQ feedback for the MAC PDU reaches a threshold configured for the remote UE, the remote UE may detect the SL RLF for an RRC connection between the remote UE and the relay UE.”: [0170]; “ For example, the remote UE may establish a PC5-RRC connection with the newly detected relay UE, and the remote UE may resume transmission through the suspended SL-SRB and SL-DRB.”: [0178]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 11, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, 3GPPR22007101 teaches , wherein the at least processor is configured to cause the apparatus to:
perform a relay reselection procedure after receiving a notification associated with at least one of:
a radio link failure (RLF) of the link between the relay UE and the BS; or a RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS (reselect a new Relay UE after UU Link fails with RLF : Section 1 Proposal 1).
Regarding claim 12, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches,
, wherein in response to receiving the notification associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, processor is configured to cause the apparatus to:
Suspends at least one of:
a data radio bearer (DRB) terminated in the BS;
a transmission of data terminated in the BS; or a transmission of signaling terminated in the BS ((see fig 12 where RELAY UE transmits Uu-RLF report to Remote UE using sidelink communication : Fig. 12, S1220 “ In step S1220, the remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here ) may inform the network of the occurrence of the Uu RLF through SL ( to the Remote UE). For example, a message informing (==notification ) the network of the Uu RLF may be included in a Sidelink UE information NR message or may be defined as a separate sidelink failure information message. For example, the transmitted message may include MCG failure information.”: [0183]; “ based on detecting the RLF for the PC5 RRC connection, a signaling radio bearer (SRB) and a data radio bearer (DRB) related to the PC5 RRC connection between the first device and the second device may be suspended.”: [0192]; “ remote UE (==RELAY UE as interpreted by the examiner here in Fig. 12 ) may suspend all SL transmissions. For example, in case of SRB, the remote UE may suspend at least one of SL-SRB0, SL-SRB1, SL-SRB2, and/or SL-SRB3. For example, in case of DRB, the remote UE may suspend SL-DRB(s).”: [0153]).
Regarding claim 13, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches, wherein in response to receiving the notification associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS or the RLF recovery failure of the link between the relay UE and the BS, the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to one or more of:
Initiate a relay discovery procedure; or
Initiate a relay reselection procedure (aforesaid Remote UE “ performing reselection for the relay device based on detecting the RLF for the PC5 RRC connection.”:[abstract]; “ The user equipment (UE) may efficiently perform relay reselection”: [0010]-[0011]; “remote UE may perform a procedure for detecting (new) relay UE(s).”: [0173]; “ According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, if the SL RLF or the Uu RLF occurs, the corresponding link may be quickly recovered. For example, if the remote UE fails to detect SL HARQ feedback from the relay UE even though the remote UE has (consecutively) transmitted data N times to the relay UE, the remote UE may determine that an RLF has occurred in the link between the remote UE and the relay UE. Herein, N may be a positive integer value configured for the remote UE. In this case, the remote UE may trigger a procedure for reselecting a new relay UE. Therefore, the remote UE can quickly select a new relay UE, and communication between the remote UE and the base station can be quickly resumed via the new relay UE.”:[0187]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 14, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches,
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to:
transmit, by an access stratum (AS) layer of the first UE, an indication to a PC5-S layer of the first UE, wherein the indication indicates an occurrence of a failure in the link between the relay UE and the BS; and
transmit, by the PC5-S layer of the first UE, a discovery message to the AS layer of the first UE (see fig. 12 : PC5 from Relay UE to Remote UE and Uu from gNB to Relay UE: “ the remote UE may establish a PC5-RRC connection with the newly detected relay UE, and the remote UE may resume transmission through the suspended SL-SRB and SL-DRB.”: [0178]; “For example, the remote UE may perform a procedure for recovering the Uu link by exchanging information for recovery of the Uu link with the network through PC5 link. This may be possible via relay UE(s) having PC5 connection(s) with the remote UE. For example, if there is no relay UE connected to the remote UE through PC5, the remote UE may detect new relay UE(s) through a discovery procedure.”:[0182]; “ if there is no suitable relay UE among relay UEs already known, the remote UE may perform a discovery procedure to detect other relay UE(s).”{0175]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 16, 3GPPR22007101 in view of HONG and HU teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, HONG teaches, wherein in response to receiving the notification associated with the RLF of the link between the relay UE and the BS, the at least processor is configured to cause the apparatus to:
continue to transmit, to the relay UE, data terminated in the relay UE; and
continue to receive data from the relay UE (see fig. 12 there Remote UE and Relay UE are connected to exchange data continuously : [0179]-[0187]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teaching of 3GPPR22007101 to include the above recited limitations as taught by HONG. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide solutions to avoid service interruption caused by RLF on the cellular link.: (HONG; [0009-0010]).
Regarding claim 7, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2.
Regarding claim 8, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3.
Regarding claim 9, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4
Regarding claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 3.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 4.
Regarding claim 21, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411