The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1, 3, 5-6, 9-13, 16-19, 21-26 are presented for examination.
Claims 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 11-13, 16-18, and 21 are amended.
Claims 2, 4, 7-8, 14-15,20, 27, and 28 are canceled.
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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 2/11/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 applicant’s arguments, see page 9 paragraphs 2 – page 10, filed January 26, 2026, with respect to claims 1, 3, 5-6, 9-13, 16-19, 21-26 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Hence a new ground of rejection is further made in view of Paladugu (US Pub. No.:2023/0284229).
Regarding amended claims 1, 9, 16 and 21, the applicant argued that, see page 9 paragraph 2, “…The source UE receives, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE and a destination L2 ID. The destination L2 ID is obtained by the second relay UE as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the destination UE and the second relay. In response to the notification to release, the source UE releases the connection with the first relay UE establishes a U2U relay to the destination UE through the second relay UE. Support for the amendments to claims 1, 9, 16, and 21 can be found, for example, in paragraph [0063] of the specification, which states that the solutions of FIGs. 4-6 can be performed concurrently because both the source UE and the destination UE can detect a failure of the first channel link. Arguments presented below with respect to claim 1 are also asserted for claims 9, 16, and 21.” … “For at least these reasons, the cited combination fails to teach or suggest every element of amended claims 1, 9, 16, and 21. Claims 1, 9, 16, and 21 and their dependent claims are in condition for allowance.”
In response to applicant's argument, the examiner respectfully disagrees with the argument above.
Paragraph 63 of instant specification recites, “[0063] In an aspect, the solutions of FIGS. 4-6 with respect to the S-UE 110-1 and the D-UE 310-3 can be performed concurrently, or simultaneously, because both S-UE 110-1 and D-UE 310-3 can determine or detect a PC5 RRC link failure of a first hop 302 to trigger relay reselection”. However, neither paragraph 63 nor anywhere in the specification provides support for the amended claim limitation, “a source UE receives, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection”. See section 6 below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 1, 3, 5-6, 9-13, 16-19, 21-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 has been amended to recite, " ... receive, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE … and a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE”. Neither the claim nor the specification further describe, “… receive, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE … and a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE”. Paragraphs 0056, 0063 of instant application disclose, “The second R-UE 410-4 reselects 412 to the D-UE 310-3 a, and notifies D-UE 310-3 to release the second direct link 304 or second PC5 link via a PC5 RRC notification message 414. Upon reception of the PC5 RRC notification message 414, D-UE releases PC5 link 416 with the old R-UE 110-2.” The claims and the specification of the instant application does not describe the method/step, “... receive, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE and a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE.” Therefore claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement
The subject matter was not described in the specification (see paragraphs 0042, 0052. 0055-0056, 0058, 0063) in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and /or use the invention.
Claims 9, 16 and 21 are also rejected for the same reason as set forth above for claim 1.
Claims 3, 5-6, 10-13, 17-19, 22-26 are also rejected since they are dependent on the rejected dependent claims 1, 9, 16 and 21, respectfully, as set forth above.
Notice re prior art available under both pre-AIA and AIA
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 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, 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, 3, 5-6, 9-13, 16-19 and 21-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US Pub. No.:2023/0074899), and further in view of Li (PCT/CN2020/107968 filed August 7, 2020 and further published as US Pub. No.:2023/0180280) and further in view of Paladugu (US Pub. No.:2023/0284229).
As per claim 1, Wang disclose A User Equipment (UE) (see Fig.6, Fig.12, UE1) comprising:
a memory (see Fig.12, para. 0226-0229, a storage apparatus 520);
processing circuitry (see Fig.12, processor 510), configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory (see para. 0228-0233, a storage non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform the method to), cause the UE to:
initiate a UE to UE (U2U) relay by establishing a direct communication channel through a first relay UE to a destination UE (see Fig.6, para. 0068-0069, "., the UE1 and UE2 establish unicast connection and forward data through an L2 first relay (relay 1)...'');
perform a U2U relay reselection to a second relay UE in response to a quality of a first channel link to the first relay UE being below a pre-configured threshold (see Fig.6, para. 0067-0071, "..the UE1 determines whether to perform path switch according to the measurement results and path switching criteria, in response to a poor quality of a PC5 link / a quality of a first channel link (between the UE1 and the relay 1 or between the relay 1 and the UE2), the path switching criteria / a U2U relay reselection when the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link) or a detection of a radio link failure (RLF) on the first channel link (see Fig.6, para. 0067-0071, the path switching criteria / perform a U2U relay reselection to a second relay UE in response to a detection of a radio link failure (RLF) on the first channel link, where the link status indication includes at least one of: a link release indication; a radio link failure (RLF) indication; a link quality indication; and a link congestion indication....);
receive, from the relay UE,
a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE (see para. 67-70, receive, from the relay UE a link release indication), and a destination Layer 2 (L2) message for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE and the destination L2 message obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE (see Fig.7, para. 0070-0072, the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2, such as an L2 link release indication from the second relay UE, and when the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 {a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID} is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.), the UE1 triggers relay reselection, see also para. 0084, the path switching notification information includes a relay identifier / Layer 2 (L2) ID, para. 0091-0093, the switch request message includes: a first UE identifier, a relay identifier, the relay identifier refers to an identifier of the relay UE L2, and the relay indication means that the first UE itself is relay UE, a destination Layer 2 (L2) message for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, since a relay identifier (or remote UE identifier) is UE L2 ID), and
in response to receiving the notification to release, release the connection with the first relay UE (see para. 0070, 0071, 0079, the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 and the UE2 initiate the release of connection with the relay 1) and establish the U2U relay to the destination UE through the second relay UE (see Fig.6, para. 0071-0072, 0084, the UE1 triggers relay reselection, and in the case of relay reselection, in the process of path switch, once the first relay fails to acknowledge a data packet, the data packet and subsequent data packets are transmitted through the second link / establishing the U2U relay to the destination UE through the second relay UE, thus ensuring the continuity of business services, see also para. 0036, 0037, the UE1 can realize direct link or relay communication path switch, or relay reselection in response to poor signal quality of a current link or a change in the coverage of the base station, so as to efficiently forward data through the relay and improve the flexibility and reliability of communication links ).
Although Wang disclose receive “a destination Layer 2 (L2) message” for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE the destination L2 message obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE;
Wang however does not explicitly disclose receive, from the second relay UE “a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID” for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE;
Li however disclose a source UE receives, from a second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE (see para. 0097, the communication module of a second relay UE is further configured to send a seventh message to the first relay device, where the seventh message requests to release a unicast connection between the first terminal device and the first relay device, or the seventh message requests to release the unicast connection between the first terminal device and the second terminal device) and receive, from a second relay UE “a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID” for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE (see para. 0222, 0251-0253, 0261, 0262, the identifier of the second relay device is an L2 ID used by the second relay device to send the announcement message, using an end-to-end PC5-RRC message, 0270-0273, the source address that is of the second source communication link and that is indicated by the second indication information is the L2 ID of the second terminal device, the second relay device measure, based on the second indication information, the second data sent by the second terminal device to the first relay device through the second source communication link, to obtain the channel quality of the second destination communication link, see also para. 0300, 0393, 0396-0397, 0450-0451);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality to receive, from a second relay UE “a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID” for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE, as taught by Li, in the system of Wang, so that communication quality between the two terminals is improved through link switching, see Li, paragraphs 6-9.
The combination of Wang and Li however does not explicitly disclose receive, from the second relay UE,
a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE;
Paladugu however disclose receiving, from a second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with a first relay UE (para. 151, receiving from a second relay UE, an indication/ a notification to release a connection due to radio link failure with a first relay UE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality to receiving, from a second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with a first relay UE, as taught by Paladugu, in the system of Wang and Li, so to receive an indication to release a first connection due to radio link failure from a second wireless device, see Paladugu, paragraphs 6-9.
As per claim 3, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 1.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the first channel link is below the (pre)configured threshold based on a sidelink (SL) reference signal receive power (RSRP) (SL-RSRP) or a sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP) (see para. 71-72, 84, the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE. When the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, or the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2 (such as an L2 link release indication, an RLF failure indication, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.) sent by the relay 1, the UE1 triggers relay reselection, see also para. 0095-0102, the sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
As per claim 5, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 1.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) notification message that comprises an indication that an RSRP associated with the second channel link between the first relay UE and the destination UE is below a threshold (see para. 80, 93-94, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the implementation of path switching according to yet another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the UE1 is connected to a base station 1 (source base station) and communicates with the source base station through a Uu interface. In response to deterioration of the quality of a Uu link of the UE1, the UE1 discovers and selects a relay, and communicates with a network through the relay, where a base station of the relay is different from that of the UE1, and the relay is connected to the target base station, see also para. 0095-0102, the sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
As per claim 6, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 1.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive a PC5 RRC notification message that comprises an indication of a second RLF associated with the second channel link being detected (see para. 80, 93-94, 96, at step 1, the UE1 receives RRC reconfiguration and/or measurement configuration information sent by the source base station. Here, the measurement configuration information includes Uu interface measurement configuration and/or sidelink measurement configuration (or PC5/relay measurement configuration). The sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
As per claim 9, claim 9 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 10, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose wherein the first channel link comprises a first PC5 interface and the second channel link comprises a second PC5 interface (see para. 69-71, in the process of switching from the link of the relay 1 to the link of the relay 2, as shown in FIG. 6, the UE1 has submitted the packets 1, 2, 3, and 4 to the PC5 interface for transmission to the relay 1, the PC5 interface adopts RLC AM mode transmission, and the UE1 receives a packets 1, 2, and 4 acknowledgement indication and a packet 3 un-acknowledgement indication sent by the relay 1).
As per claim 11, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose determining whether the first channel link is below the (pre)configured threshold based on a sidelink (SL) reference signal receive power (RSRP) (SL-RSRP) or a sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP); releasing the first channel link to the first relay UE in response to the measurement of the first channel link being at or below the (pre)configured threshold; and providing a direct communication request to the second relay UE for the U2U relay reselection (see para. 71-72, 84, the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE. When the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, or the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2 (such as an L2 link release indication, an RLF failure indication, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.) sent by the relay 1, the UE1 triggers relay reselection).
As per claim 12, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose receiving a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) notification message that comprises the notification with an indication that an RSRP associated with the second channel link is below a threshold (see para. 80, 93-94, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the implementation of path switching according to yet another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the UE1 is connected to a base station 1 (source base station) and communicates with the source base station through a Uu interface. In response to deterioration of the quality of a Uu link of the UE1, the UE1 discovers and selects a relay, and communicates with a network through the relay, where a base station of the relay is different from that of the UE1, and the relay is connected to the target base station, see also para. 0095-0102).
As per claim 13, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose receiving the notification including a PC5 RRC notification message that comprises an indication of a second RLF associated with the second channel link being detected (see para. 80, 93-94, 96, at step 1, the UE1 receives RRC reconfiguration and/or measurement configuration information sent by the source base station. Here, the measurement configuration information includes Uu interface measurement configuration and/or sidelink measurement configuration (or PC5/relay measurement configuration). The sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
As per claim 14, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose wherein the release message comprises a PC5-S signaling with an L2 release message from the first relay UE (see para. 67-70, ; where the link status indication includes at least one of: a link release indication; a radio link failure (RLF) indication; a link quality indication; and a link congestion indication.... the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE).
As per claim 15, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the method of claim 9.
Wang further disclose concurrently monitoring the first channel link and the second channel link during the U2U relay reselection, wherein establishing the U2U relay to the destination UE through the second relay UE in response to the second relay UE performing thePC5 link establishment procedure with the destination UE and notifying the destination UE to release the second channel link via a PC5RRC notification message (see para. 80, 93-94, 96, at step 1, the UE1 receives RRC reconfiguration and/or measurement configuration information sent by the source base station. Here, the measurement configuration information includes Uu interface measurement configuration and/or sidelink measurement configuration (or PC5/relay measurement configuration). The sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
As per claim 16, claim 16 is rejected the same way as claim 1. Wang disclose a baseband processor (see Fig.6, Fig.12, UE1) comprising: at least one memory (see Fig.12, para. 0226-0229, a storage apparatus 520); processing circuitry (see Fig.12, processor 510).
As per claim 17, claim 17 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
As per claim 18, claim 18 is rejected the same way as claim 5.
As per claim 19, claim 19 is rejected the same way as claim 6.
As per claim 20, claim 20 is rejected the same way as claim 8.
As per claim 21, claim 21 is rejected the same way as claim 1. Wang disclose A User Equipment (UE) (see Fig.6, Fig.12, UE1) comprising: processing circuitry (see Fig.12, processor 510), comprising at least one memory (see Fig.12, para. 0226-0229, a storage apparatus 520).
As per claim 22, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 21.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to release a first PC5 interface link as the first channel link (see para. 0070-0071, the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE. When the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, or the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2 (such as an L2 link release indication, an RLF failure indication, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.) sent by the relay 1, the UE1 triggers relay reselection).
As per claim 23, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 21.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the second channel link is below the (pre)configured threshold based on a sidelink (SL) reference signal receive power (RSRP) (SL-RSRP) or a sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP); and release the second channel link to the first relay UE in response to the measurement of the second channel link being at or below the pre-configured threshold (see para. 71-72, 84, the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE. When the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, or the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2 (such as an L2 link release indication, an RLF failure indication, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.) sent by the relay 1, the UE1 triggers relay reselection).
As per claim 24, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 21.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: release the second channel link to the first relay UE in response to the detection of a PC5 RLF (see para. 0070-0071, the fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link refers to a quality threshold of a PC5 link between the first UE and the first relay UE. When the UE1 detects that the quality of the PC5 link with the relay 1 is lower than the configured or pre-configured fourth threshold of the link quality of the first link, or the UE1 receives an L2 link release message sent by the relay 1 or an indication of no longer acting as a relay, or the UE1 receives link instruction information between the relay 1 and the target UE2 (such as an L2 link release indication, an RLF failure indication, an indication of the link quality being lower than the configured or pre-configured threshold or a link congestion indication, etc.) sent by the relay 1, the UE1 triggers relay reselection).
As per claim 25, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 21.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) notification message that comprises the notification with an indication that an SL-RSRP, or an SD-RSRP, associated with the first channel link between the first relay UE and the source UE is below a threshold; and initiate the U2U relay reselection in response to the PC5 RRC notification message (see para. 80, 93-94, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the implementation of path switching according to yet another embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the UE1 is connected to a base station 1 (source base station) and communicates with the source base station through a Uu interface. In response to deterioration of the quality of a Uu link of the UE1, the UE1 discovers and selects a relay, and communicates with a network through the relay, where a base station of the relay is different from that of the UE1, and the relay is connected to the target base station, see also para. 0095-0102).
As per claim 26, the combination of Wang, Li and Paladugu disclose the UE of claim 21.
Wang further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive the notification including a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) notification message that comprises an indication of a second RLF associated with the first channel link being detected (see para. 80, 93-94, 96, at step 1, the UE1 receives RRC reconfiguration and/or measurement configuration information sent by the source base station. Here, the measurement configuration information includes Uu interface measurement configuration and/or sidelink measurement configuration (or PC5/relay measurement configuration). The sidelink measurement configuration includes at least one of: a relay measurement indication, PC5 interface RSRP, PC5 interface RSRQ, PC5 interface RSSI, or measurement information. The measurement information includes: PC5 RSRP/RSRQ/RSSI measurement values, a relay identifier, and a relay serving cell identifier).
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Second Rejection:
Claim(s) 1, 3, 6, 9, 16-20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Freda (WO 2022/032034A1), and further in view of Li (PCT/CN2020/107968 filed August 7, 2020 and further published as US Pub. No.:2023/0180280).
As per claim 1, Freda disclose A User Equipment (UE) comprising: a memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the, comprising at least one memory, the processing circuitry configured to, when executing instructions stored in the memory, cause the UE to: initiate a UE to UE (U2U) relay by establishing a direct communication channel through a first relay UE to a destination UE; perform a U2U relay reselection to a second relay UE in response to a a quality of a first channel link to the first relay UE being below a pre-configured threshold or a detection of a radio link failure (RLF) on the first channel link (see para. 0075-0076, "...A remote WTRU may perform radio measurements at the PC5 interface and use them for Prose WTRU-to-network relay selection and re-selection along with higher layer criterion.. for example, if the PC5 link quality exceeds a configured threshold (e.g., pre-configured or provided by the eNB). In some instances, the remote WTRU may select the Prose WTRU-to-network relay that satisfies one or more criteria (provided by, e.g., higher layer signaling, higher layer functions or entities, or their logical equivalents) and has the best PC5 link quality among all suitable Prose WTRU-to-network relays. A remote WTRU may trigger Prose WTRU-to-network relay reselection under one or more circumstances. For example, the remote WTRU may trigger Prose WTRU-to-network relay reselection when a PC5 signal strength of the current Prose WTRU-to-network relay is below the configured signal strength threshold and/or when the remote WTRU receives a layer-2 link release message (e.g., an upper layer message or any logical equivalent) from the Prose WTRU-to-network relay.."; see paragraph 125: "..A relay WTRU may include, in the LP/ to the source WTRU any of an indication of failure, an indication of a triggered relay selection/ reselection initiated by the relay.");
receive, from the second relay UE, a notification to release a connection with the first relay UE (see paragraph 125, when the remote WTRU receives a layer-2 link release message (e.g., an upper layer message or any logical equivalent) from the Prose WTRU-to-network relay.."), and a destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination Layer 2 (L2) ID for the destination UE from the second relay UE, the destination L2 ID obtained as part of a PC5 link establishment procedure between the second relay UE and the destination UE (see para. 0097, 0098, the relay WTRU may determine the source/destination address using any means described in the above examples (e.g., derived from a RAN ID) and may provide the ID or IDs in the PC5-RRC configuration procedure to each of the source WTRUs, see also para. 0125, 0127, 0149, 0156, 0189) and establish the U2U relay to the destination UE through the second relay UE during the U2U relay reselection from the first relay UE to the second relay UE (see paragraph 0125, 0126, Fig.6, 152, 154, 156: "..a WTRU may perform relay selection or re-selection and/or recovery (e.g., after RLF, for example) to a relay from a set of configured relay WTRUs provided by the network. Specifically, a WTRU may determine the relay WTRU to select, reselect or recover by selecting a WTRU within a list of WTRUs provided by the network..."; see also paragraphs 136-137, 139-141, 198-200).
Freda however doe not explicitly disclose in response to receiving the notification to release, release the connection with the first relay UE;
Li however disclose in response to receiving the notification to release, release the connection with the first relay UE (see para. 525, release the connection with the first relay UE in response to receiving the notification to release).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality to in response to receiving the notification to release, release the connection with the first relay UE, as taught by Li, in the system of Wang, so that communication quality between the two terminals is improved through link switching, see Li, paragraphs 6-9.
As per claim 3, the combination of Freda and Li disclose the UE of claim 1.
Freda further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the first channel link is below the (pre)configured threshold based on a sidelink (SL) reference signal receive power (RSRP) (SL-RSRP) or a sidelink discovery RSRP (SD-RSRP)(see para. 139-140, 148-149).
As per claim 5, the combination of Freda and Li disclose disclose the UE of claim 1.
Freda further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: receive a PC5 radio resource control (RRC) notification message that comprises an indication that an RSRP associated with the second channel link between the first relay UE and the destination UE is below a threshold (see para. 148-149).
As per claim 6 the combination of Freda and Li disclose the UE of claim 1.
Freda further disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: a PC5 RRC notification message that comprises an indication of a second RLF associated with the second channel link being detected (see para. 139-140, 148-149).
As per claim 9, claim 9 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 17, claim 17 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
As per claim 18, claim 18 is rejected the same way as claim 5.
As per claim 19, claim 19 is rejected the same way as claim 6.
As per claim 21, claim 21 is rejected the same way as claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang (US Pub. No.:2024/0214288) – see para. 0093-0094, 0114, “…upon reception of the second indication/message indicating the outcome of the RLF recovery in the Uu interface from the relay UE, the remote UE may decide whether to trigger relay reselection and/or cell selection/reselection (i.e., RRC reestablishment). In case the remote UE has received the second message indicating that RLF in the Uu interface has been recovered, the remote UE may clear the received failure indications/messages, and may continuously communicate with the relay UE. In this case, if the transmission/radio bearers towards the relay UE were suspended, they may be resumed. In case the remote UE has received the second message indicating that RLF in the Uu interface has not been recovered, the remote UE may decide to trigger relay reselection procedure and/or cell”.
Back (US Pub. No.:2024/0244514) – see Fig.11, para. 0110, 0137-0139, “FIG. 11 illustrates a procedure in which a remote UE selects a relay UE in NE-to-Network Relay. The relay UE and a gNB are in a connected state (S1101), and a remote UE that searches for the relay UE broadcasts a discovery message. At this time, there are model A and model B as a scheme for transmitting the discovery message, and in this regard, the model A is a method in which the remote UE finds the relay UE by periodically broadcasting the discovery message (S1102a), and the model B is a method in which, when the relay UE broadcasts a discovery solicitation message, a nearby remote UE that hears the broadcast responds with a discovery message (S1102sb). At this time, a UE that becomes the relay UE may be selected as a UE of which measured signal (e.g., RSRP or RSRQ) value with the gNB falls within a certain threshold range”.
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/LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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