DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
5. Claims 1 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Orsino et al. (US 2025/0227579 A1, hereinafter “Orsino”) in view of Huawei (“Report of [AT118-e][633][Relay] Remaining ASN.1 review issues (Huawei),” 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #118, R2-2206254, 09-22 May 2022) and Back et al. (US 2025/0175865 A1, hereinafter “Back”).
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Orsino teaches a User Equipment (UE), comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (figs 7, 8), cause the UE at least to: perform, while camped in a first cell, a proximity-based Services (ProSe) discovery procedure; based on the ProSe discovery procedure, detect a plurality of candidate relay UEs in radio proximity of the UE (¶ [0023]); for each of the detected plurality of candidate relay UEs, obtain information comprising a first cell identifier identifying a camping cell of the detected candidate relay UE (figs. 3, 4, 6, ¶ [0032], ¶ [0042], At step 1, the UE-to-network remote UE reports one or multiple candidate UE-to-network relay UE(s) and Uu measurements, after it measures/discovers the candidate UE-to-network relay UE(s). The reporting may include at least UE-to-network relay UE ID, UE-to-network relay UE's serving cell ID, and sidelink measurement quantity information. The sidelink measurement quantity can be SL-RSRP of the candidate UE-to-network Relay UE, and if SL-RSRP is not available, SD-RSRP is used, ¶ [0116]); wherein the first cell identifier is broadcast in a ProSe discovery message (¶ [0023] and ¶ [0042]); transmit the information to a radio access node of the first cell as part of a measurement report of the candidate relay UEs (figs. 3, 4, 6, ¶ [0042], At step 1, the UE-to-network remote UE reports one or multiple candidate UE-to-network relay UE(s) and Uu measurements, after it measures/discovers the candidate UE-to-network relay UE(s)); receive, from the radio access node, a path switching command comprising: an indication of a selected candidate relay UE (figs. 4, 6, ¶ [0044] At step 3, the gNB sends the RRCReconfiguration message to the UE-to-network remote UE. The contents in the RRCReconfiguration message can include at least UE-to-network relay UE ID, PC5 relay RLC channel configuration for relay traffic and the associated end-to-end radio bearer(s). ¶ [0116], ¶ [0118], At step 5, the source network node sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the remote UE. The RRC reconfiguration may include a handover/path switch command.); and configuration/parameter corresponding to a target cell from which radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration parameters were obtained during an inter-NB or intra-gNB path switching preparation procedure (fig. 6, ¶ [0116], At step 3, the source network node send a handover request to the target network node. The handover request may include information about the target relay UE (UE2). ¶ [0117] At step 4, the target network node sends a handover acknowledgment to the source network node. The handover acknowledgment may include configuration information for the remote UE and/or the target relay UE. ¶ [0118] At step 5, the source network node sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the remote UE. The RRC reconfiguration may include a handover/path switch command), in response to receiving the path switching command, initiate establishment of a PCS sidelink between the UE and the selected candidate relay UE; transmit, to the selected candidate relay UE during or before completion of the PCS establishment, a relay-request message containing the second cell identifier (figs. 4, 6, ¶ [0113], when receiving the path switch command (generated by the target network node) from the source network node, the remote UE triggers the sidelink connection establishment procedure to the target relay UE. When triggering the sidelink connection establishment to the target relay UE, the remote UE may include additional information to help the relay UE perform a particular action. The additional information that the remote UE may send to the target relay UE include any one or more of the following: the cell ID to which the remote UE wants to connect (i.e., the target network node ID or another network node ID, for a multipath scenario): (c) the cell ID to which the relay UE should connect (i.e., the target node ID): (d) a configuration (generated by the target network node and received by the source network node) that the relay UE should use.¶ [0119]); the relay- request message being carried in one of: (i) a sidelink RRC RemoteUEInformationSidelink message extended to include a target cell identifier field,
(ii) a sidelink medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) comprising a target cell identifier indication MAC CE, or (ii) a sidelink adaptation layer control protocol data unit (figs. 3-6, ¶ [0122], Signaling between UEs may include: RRC signaling (e.g., PC5-RRC): PC5-S signaling; discovery signaling; MAC CE: L1 signaling on channels such as PSSCH, PSCCH, or PSFCH; and/or control PDU of a protocol layer such as SDAP, PDCP, RLC or an adaptation layer responsible for the duplication function); in response to the relay-request message, receive, from the candidate relay UE, a sidelink message comprising: an indication that that the relay device cannot serve as a relay between UE and the cell indicated by the second cell identifier associated with the path switching command (¶ [0113], ¶ [0115], if the target relay UE does not want to operate as a relay UE, when receiving the sidelink connection establishment message from the remote UE, the target relay UE may may send a message back to the remote UE with a reject indication or the message may be identified as a rejection (e.g., according to the name of the message).
Orsino does not teach the path switching command comprising a second cell identifier corresponding to a target cell from which radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration parameters were obtained during an inter-NB or intra-gNB path switching preparation procedure; in response to the relay-request message, receive, from the candidate relay UE, a sidelink NotificationMessageSidelink.
However, Orsino teaches the path switching command comprising parameter/configuration corresponding to a target cell from which radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration parameters were obtained during an inter-NB or intra-gNB path switching preparation procedure (fig. 6, ¶ [0116]-¶ [0118])
Huawei teaches including a cell identifier in the path switch command (page 10, §3.2. Page 8), receiving message from the relay device in a NotificationMessageSidelink (Page 6).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include a second cell identifier, corresponding to a target cell from which radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration parameters were obtained during an inter-NB or intra-gNB path switching preparation procedure, in the path switching command, and to receive the message from the relay device in a NotificationMessageSidelink in the system Orsino. The motivation for doing this is a matter of design choice (pages 11-12 of Huawei).
Orson does not explicitly teach including in response to the relay-request message, receive from the candidate relay UE, a sidelink NotificationMessageSidelink comprising: an indication that the selected candidate relay UE experienced a cell reselection or handover after transmitting its first cell identifier, information indicating that the selected candidate relay UE is no longer associated with a corresponding cell identified by the second cell identifier, and a third cell identifier identifying a second cell on which the selected candidate relay UE is currently camping; and based on receiving the NotificationMessageSidelink, initiate an RRC re-establishment procedure that identifies the third cell identifier as the target cell for re-establishment, such that the UE re-establishes RRC connection either: (a) directly with the second cell identified by the third cell identifier, or (b) indirectly via the selected candidate relay UE operating on the second cell.
Back teaches a cell identifier in the path switch command (¶ [0166], ¶ [0172]); in response to the relay-request message, receive from the candidate relay UE, a sidelink notification comprising: an indication that the selected candidate relay UE experienced a cell reselection or handover after transmitting its first cell identifier, information indicating that the selected candidate relay UE is no longer associated with a corresponding cell identified by the second cell identifier, and a third cell identifier identifying a second cell on which the selected candidate relay UE is currently camping; and based on receiving the notification initiate an RRC re-establishment procedure that identifies the third cell identifier as the target cell for re-establishment, such that the UE re-establishes RRC connection either: (a) directly with the second cell identified by the third cell identifier, or (b) indirectly via the selected candidate relay UE operating on the second cell ( ¶ [0154], the remote UE may perform RRC re-establishment related to handover failure based on receiving information notifying cell change from the relay UE. After establishing an SL connection with the remote UE, when the remote UE transmits an RRCReconfigurationComplete message to the relay UE, and then the relay becomes CONNECTED to a cell different from the cell on which the relay UE camps while performing connection with the gNB, the relay UE may indicate this to the remote UE. The remote UE receiving this may perform a Handover (HO) failure procedure.¶ [0156], In such a path switching procedure, the cell change of the relay UE may be notified to the remote UE by information notifying the cell change as described above. ¶ [0159], ¶ [0168], ¶ [0169]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to include a second cell identifier in the path switch command, and to receive, in response to the relay-request message, from the candidate relay UE, a sidelink NotificationMessageSidelink comprising: an indication that the selected candidate relay UE experienced a cell reselection or handover after transmitting its first cell identifier, information indicating that the selected candidate relay UE is no longer associated with a corresponding cell identified by the second cell identifier, and a third cell identifier identifying a second cell on which the selected candidate relay UE is currently camping; and based on receiving the NotificationMessageSidelink, initiate an RRC re-establishment procedure that identifies the third cell identifier as the target cell for re-establishment, such that the UE re-establishes RRC connection either: (a) directly with the second cell identified by the third cell identifier, or (b) indirectly via the selected candidate relay UE operating on the second cell to resolve the uncertainty of operations of the relay UE and the remote UE when a cell of a relay UE is changed during path switching of a remote UE (¶ [0159]).
Response to Arguments
6. Applicant's arguments filed on December 4, 2025have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Examiner submits that Orsino in view of Huawei and Back render obvious the amended claims 1 and 12, as set forth above.
Conclusion
7. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MANDISH RANDHAWA whose telephone number is (571)270-5650. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday (9 AM-7 PM).
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/MANDISH K RANDHAWA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477