DETAILED ACTION
This Non-Final Office Action is in response to application number 18,318,509 filed on May 16th 2023. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Applicant’s amendment filed 11/13/2025 is acknowledged
Claims 1,3,4,6-9,13,14 and 17 are amended
Claims 2,10,11 and 12 have been deleted
Claims 18-24 have been added
Information Disclosure Statements
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS), submitted on March 26th 2025 and December 24th 2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1,3-8,13-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12075299 B2) in view of Xu et al. (WO 2017049975 A1 Translation Used).
Regarding claims 1,13 and 23, Zhang et al. disclose a connection method, comprising: obtaining, by an access network device, connection mode preference information of a first terminal device, wherein the connection mode preference information indicates a connection mode preference of the first terminal device (Column 14 Lines 55-65 disclose “The UE informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PC5 availability to the NW (e.g. gNB/eNB) [connection mode preference information to access network device], and the NW further informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PCS availability to the application server and/or to a core network node.” Column 15 Lines 15-25 discloses “For options 1 and 2, the application server could inform the two UEs to switch the transmission to PC5 path if PC5 is authorized to be used for both UEs,…” ); and sending, by the access network device, path switching information to the first terminal device based on the connection mode preference information, wherein the path switching information is used to switch a connection mode between the first terminal device and the access network device (Column 15 Lines 10-15 disclose that “For some of the above options (e.g. option 1) the network (NW) may provide the PC5 (e.g. resource pool for service communication and/or service discovery) configurations to UEl and UE2 together with the path switching instruction.”).
Zhang et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity.
However in an analogous art Xu et al. teaches wherein the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity (Page 4 Paragraph 5 discloses “Optionally, the transmission path includes: an interface for transmitting the V2X service, a relay for transmitting the V2X service, and a neighboring cell for transmitting the V2X service, where the interface of the V2X service includes: a Uu interface and a PC5 interface.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhang et al. to incorporate the teachings Xu et al. to show that the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, in order to support a failsafe, robust and efficient network environment.
Regarding claims 3,14, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 1, the sending, by the access network device, path switching information to the first terminal device based on the connection mode preference information comprises: in response to the connection mode currently used between the first terminal device and the access network device is a PC5 interface single connectivity, and a signal of a Uu interface of the first terminal device meets a first preset condition, determining, by the access network device, to switch the connection mode between the first terminal device and the access network device to the Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity (Column 9 Lines 24-28 disclose “Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a path selection and switch solution by considering different communication technologies (such as Uu and/or PCS path) availability at both Tx side and Rx side.”); and sending, by the access network device, the path switching information to the first terminal device (Column 23 Lines 30-36 disclose “In an embodiment, the network device or the application server may send resource configuration of the second communication technology and path switching instruction to the first terminal device and/or the at least one second terminal device.”) , wherein the path switching information comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates the first terminal device to establish a Uu interface connection to the access network device, and maintain a PC5 interface connection to a relay device (Column 9 Lines 30-35 discloses “In some embodiments of the present disclosure, signaling for instructing and acknowledging path selection/switching, over either Uu or PCS, or both.” Furthermore column 11 Lines 35- 40 disclose “Additionally or alternatively, the UE 110 may use multiple RATs simultaneously.”).
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 3, wherein before determining, by the access network device, to switch the connection mode between the first terminal device and the access network device to the Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, the method further comprises: determining, by the access network device based on path support capability information of the first terminal device, that the first terminal device supports the Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity (Column 11 Lines 20-50 disclose “Additionally or alternatively, the UE, network device or application server may select the RAT may select a RAT based on the link qualities of the PCS and/or Uu interfaces of each RAT, connection status in each RAT, load 30 status of the access node 120 in each RAT, UE capability, the V2X application type and/or the QoS class of the initiated V2X application.” Furthermore dual connectivity or multiple RATs is disclosed through “For example, the UE 110 may use multiple RATs to support the same V2X application in order to enhance throughput and/ or reliability, among other things. Additionally or alternatively, after RAT selection, the Uu and/or PCS interface could be further selected based on V2X embodiments described herein are applicable”).
Regarding claims 5 and 15 , Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 3, wherein the first preset condition comprises at least one of: a signal strength of the Uu interface is greater than or equal to a first strength threshold; a signal strength of the Uu interface is greater than a first strength threshold; signal quality of the Uu interface is greater than or equal to a first quality threshold; signal quality of the Uu interface is greater than a first quality threshold; a signal-to-noise ratio of the Uu interface is greater than or equal to a first signal-to-noise ratio threshold; or a signal-to-noise ratio of the Uu interface is greater than a first signal-to-noise ratio threshold (Column 14 Lines 50-60 disclose “In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the path switch is initiated by UE. UE can determine that its Uu path is going to become unavailable due to e.g. degradation in channel quality for one or more services.”).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by an access network device the connection mode preference information of a first terminal device comprises: receiving, by the access network device, the connection mode preference information from a first network device, wherein the first network device is an access and mobility management function device or a session management device; or receiving, by the access network device, the connection mode preference information from the first terminal device (Column 14 Lines 55-65 disclose “The UE informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PCS availability to the NW (e.g. gNB/eNB) [connection mode preference information to access network device], and the NW further informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PCS availability to the application server and/or to a core network node.”).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang et al. disclose a connection method, comprising: obtaining, by a first network device, connection mode preference information of a first terminal device, wherein the connection mode preference information indicates a connection mode preference of the first terminal device (Column 14 Lines 55-65 disclose “The UE informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PCS availability to the NW (e.g. gNB/eNB) [connection mode preference information], and the NW further informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PC5 availability to the application server and/or to a core network node.”); and sending, by the first network device, the connection mode preference information to an access network device (Column 15 Lines 15-25 disclose “For options 1 and 2, the application server could inform the two UEs to switch the transmission to PC5 path if PC5 is authorized to be used for both UEs,”).
Zhang et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity.
However in an analogous art Xu et al. teaches wherein the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity (Page 4 Paragraph 5 discloses “Optionally, the transmission path includes: an interface for transmitting the V2X service, a relay for transmitting the V2X service, and a neighboring cell for transmitting the V2X service, where the interface of the V2X service includes: a Uu interface and a PC5 interface.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhang et al. to incorporate the teachings Xu et al. to show that the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, in order to support a failsafe, robust and efficient network environment.
Regarding claim 8, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 7, wherein obtaining, by the first network device the connection mode preference information of the first terminal device comprises: obtaining, by the first network device, subscription data of the first terminal device; and obtaining, by the first network device, the connection mode preference information based on the subscription data of the first terminal device (Column 10 Lines 40-46 discloses “In some embodiments, RAT selection (and correspondingly, path selection via an access node 120 that supports a given RAT) may depend on the service corresponding to the communication and/or UE subscription information.”).
Regarding claim 17, Zhang et al. disclose the communication device according to claim 13, wherein the step of determining comprises: receiving the connection mode preference information from a first network device, wherein the first network device is an access and mobility management function device or a session management device; or receiving the connection mode preference information from the first terminal device (Column 14 Lines 55-65 disclose “The UE informs the Uu path unavailability for one or more services and optionally the PC5 availability to the NW (e.g. gNB/eNB) [sending connection mode preference information to the access network device]…”).
Regarding claims 18, 20 and 21 Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the connection mode preference is a connection mode in which the first terminal device is allowed to be connected to an access network device (US 12075299 Zhang Column 38 lines 55-65 discloses “A first UE 1491 located in coverage area 1413c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 1412c.”).
Regarding clams 19,22 and 24, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the connection mode currently used between the first terminal device and the access network device is a PC5 interface single connectivity(Column 15 Lines 10-15 disclose that “For some of the above options (e.g. option 1) the network (NW) [access network node] may provide the PC5 (e.g. resource pool for service communication and/or service discovery) configurations to UEl and UE2 together with the path switching instruction.”);
Zhang et al. fail to explicitly disclose the path switching information indicates the first terminal device to establish a Uu interface connection to the access network device, and maintain a PC5 interface connection to a relay device.
However in an analogous art Xu et al. teaches path switching information indicates the first terminal device to establish a Uu interface connection to the access network device, and maintain a PC5 interface connection to a relay device (Page 4 Paragraph 5 discloses “Optionally, the transmission path includes: an interface for transmitting the V2X service, a relay for transmitting the V2X service, and a neighboring cell for transmitting the V2X service, where the interface of the V2X service includes: a Uu interface and a PC5 interface.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhang et al. to incorporate the teachings Xu et al. to show that the connection mode preference is a Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, in order to support a failsafe, robust and efficient network environment.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 12075299 B2) in view Xu et al. (WO 2017049975 A1) further in view of Shan (WO 2020150268 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang et al. disclose the method according to claim 7.
Zhang et al. fail to explicitly disclose wherein the first network device is an access and mobility management function device, and before obtaining, by the first network device the connection mode preference information of the first terminal device, the method further comprises: receiving, by the access and mobility management function device, a registration request from the first terminal device, wherein the registration request comprises path support capability information of the first terminal device, wherein the path support capability information indicates that the first terminal device supports one or more of the following: Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, Uu interface single connectivity, or PC5 interface single connectivity.
However, in an analogous art, Shan teaches wherein the first network device is an access and mobility management function device, and before the obtaining, by a first network device, connection mode preference information of a first terminal device, the method further comprises: receiving, by the access and mobility management function device, a registration request from the first terminal device, wherein the registration request comprises path support capability information of the first terminal device, wherein the path support capability information indicates that the first terminal device supports one or more of the following: Uu interface and PC5 interface dual connectivity, Uu interface single connectivity, or PC5 interface single connectivity (Paragraph 0486 discloses “In step 1602, processing circuitry executing an AMF may receive a registration request message from a user equipment (UE) indicating a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) PC5 Radio Access Technology (RAT) configuration supported by the UE.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhang et al. to incorporate the teachings Shan to facilitate the registration request from the first terminal device, wherein the registration request comprises path support capability information of the first terminal device, in order to optimize connection setup and allocate resources efficiently.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Samuel Dilan Rutnam whose telephone number is 703-756-1374. The examiner can normally be reached between 8:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586.
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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471