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 .
The following is a Non-final Office action in response to Applicant submission received on 11/02/2023.
Claims 9-12 have been canceled by an applicant’s preliminary amendment.
4. Claims 1-8, 13-16 are currently pending and have been examined.
Foreign Priority
5. No foreign priority claimed under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Oath/Declaration
6. The applicant's oath/declaration filed on 11/02/2023 has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Drawings
7. The applicant’s drawings submitted on 11/02/2023 are acceptable for examination purposes.
Information Disclosure Statement
8. The information disclosure statement submitted by Applicant is in compliance with the provision of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
12. 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.
13. Claim(s) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Perras et al. (US 20230224778 A1) in view of 3GPP (TS 24.587 V17.5.0, # of pages: 2, dated 03/2022).
Regarding claim 1, Perras discloses a method for a relay User Equipment (UE), comprising:
the relay UE establishes a first layer-2 link with a source remote UE for supporting a first UE-to-UE (U2U) relay communication between the source remote UE and a first destination remote UE via the relay UE (Perras, Fig. 2, para. 87: FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a layer-2 WTRU to WTRU relay method 200. In step 210, a relay WTRU 20 may be provisioned with relay policy parameters. In step 211, a target WTRU 22, 23, 24 may determine a destination layer-2 identifier (L2 ID) for signaling reception. A source WTRU 21 may send a direct communication request (DCR) message 212, for example, in broadcast mode to the relay WTRU 20, which may trigger a WTRU discovery process by sending a broadcast DCR message 213 to peer WTRUs 22, 23, 24);
the relay UE receives a first PC5 message from the source remote UE for modifying the first layer-2 link to add a second destination remote UE for a second U2U relay communication between the source remote UE and the second destination remote UE via the relay UE (Perras, Fig. 7, para. 120, 173, 176, 180, 187: PC5 signaling may be relayed between the source and the target WTRUs. For example, the source WTRU may send a link modification request to the current relay WTRU (e.g., RID1). The source WTRU may indicate that the message may be for “relay reselection” and destined to the target WTRU);
the relay UE initiates, in response to reception of the first PC5-S message, a procedure of establishing a second layer-2 link between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE (Perras, para. 180: the source WTRU 71 may initiate a (e.g., PC5 unicast) link establishment procedure, for example, by sending a DCR message 740 including the link ID of the PC5 link to be switched (e.g., LID1) and an identifier of the target WTRU 72 (T-WTRU ID), such as, for example, the user info of the target WTRU 72);
the relay UE sends, in response to completion of establishing the second layer-2 link, a second PC5 message to the source remote UE for complete of modification of the first layer-2 link (Perras, para. 185: any of the source 71 and the target 72 WTRUs may initiate (e.g., trigger) a PC5 link release procedure 780 for the (e.g., first) PC5 link via the first relay WTRU 701, for example, after the (e.g., second) PC5 link may be established via the second relay WTRU 702).
Perras does not appear to explicitly disclose the relay UE sends, in response to the completion of modification of the first layer-2 link, a PC5-RRC message to the source remote UE, wherein the PC5-RRC message includes a layer-2 identity (L2ID) of the second destination remote UE and a local identity for identifying the second destination remote UE.
In the same field of endeavor, 3GPP discloses the relay UE sends, in response to the completion of modification of the first layer-2 link, a PC5-RRC message to the source remote UE, wherein the PC5-RRC message includes a layer-2 identity (L2ID) of the second destination remote UE and a local identity for identifying the second destination remote UE (3GPP, pages 1-2: If the target UE accepts the PCS unicast link establishment request, then the target UE may perform the PC5 QoS flow establishment over PC5 unicast link, section 6.1.2.12. Moreover, section 6.1.2.12 further discloses pass the following parameters to the lower layers: the source and destination layer-2 ID. After Direct Communication Accept, the target UE (third UE) may perform the PC5 QoS flow establishment in which §6.1.2.12 becomes operative. Passing the parameters to lower layer is read as delivering them to an access stratum (AS) entity, the RRC layer is the control plane directly below PDCP and thus becomes the trigger for PCS-RRC message. One of ordinary skill in the pertinent art is capable of understanding that the cited section 6.1.2.12 of 3GPP instructs the UE to pass the parameters to lower layers, the RRC layer is obliged to encapsulate those parameters in a PCS-RRC message). 3GPP also discloses in section 6.1.2.12: pass the following parameters to the lower layers: the source and destination layer-2 ID)). The UE shall derive the PC5 QoS parameters based on the V2X application requirements provided by the upper layers (if available) and the V2X service identifier(s)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras with the teaching of 3GPP by using the above features such as sending a PC5-RRC message that includes a layer-2 identity of the second destination remote UE to the source remote UE as taught by 3GPP. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform PC5 QoS flow establishment over PC5 unicast link.
Regarding claim 2, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first PC5 message includes a user info Identity (ID) or an upper layer ID of the second destination remote UE (Perras, para. 84, 98, 149: the term “user info” may refer to an application layer identifier. For example, a WTRU may be identified at the application layer based on this identifier. The user info may be used in direct communication (e.g., any of request and accept) messages to identify any of a source and a target WTRUs. That is, a first PC5 unicast link 410 may be established between a source WTRU 41 and a relay WTRU 40).
Regarding claim 3, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the second PC5 message includes a user info Identity (ID) or an upper layer ID of the second destination remote UE (Perras, para. 84, 98, 149: the term “user info” may refer to an application layer identifier. For example, a WTRU may be identified at the application layer based on this identifier. The user info may be used in direct communication (e.g., any of request and accept) messages to identify any of a source and a target WTRUs. That is, a second PC5 unicast link 411 may be establish between a target WTRU 41 and the relay WTRU 40).
Regarding claim 4, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first PC5 message is a Link Modification Request message, and the second PC5 message is a Link Modification Accept message (Perras, abstract, para. 104, 106, 167: the first PC5 message is a Link Modification Request message and the second PC5 message is a Link Modification Accept message).
Regarding claim 5, Perras discloses a relay User Equipment (UE), comprising:
a control circuit (Perras, Fig 1B); a processor installed in the control circuit (Perras, Fig 1B); and a memory installed in the control circuit and operatively coupled to the processor (Perras, Fig 1B); wherein the processor is configured to execute a program code stored in the memory to:
establish a first layer-2 link with a source remote UE for supporting a first UE-to-UE (U2U) relay communication between the source remote UE and a first destination remote UE via the relay UE (Perras, Fig. 2, para. 87: FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a layer-2 WTRU to WTRU relay method 200. In step 210, a relay WTRU 20 may be provisioned with relay policy parameters. In step 211, a target WTRU 22, 23, 24 may determine a destination layer-2 identifier (L2 ID) for signaling reception. A source WTRU 21 may send a direct communication request (DCR) message 212, for example, in broadcast mode to the relay WTRU 20, which may trigger a WTRU discovery process by sending a broadcast DCR message 213 to peer WTRUs 22, 23, 24);
receive a first PC5 message from the source remote UE for modifying the first layer-2 link to add a second destination remote UE for a second U2U relay communication between the source remote UE and the second destination remote UE via the relay UE (Perras, Fig. 7, para. 120, 173, 176, 180, 187: PC5 signaling may be relayed between the source and the target WTRUs. For example, the source WTRU may send a link modification request to the current relay WTRU (e.g., RID1). The source WTRU may indicate that the message may be for “relay reselection” and destined to the target WTRU); and
initiate, in response to reception of the first PC5-S message, a procedure of establishing a second layer-2 link between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE (Perras, para. 180: the source WTRU 71 may initiate a (e.g., PC5 unicast) link establishment procedure, for example, by sending a DCR message 740 including the link ID of the PC5 link to be switched (e.g., LID1) and an identifier of the target WTRU 72 (T-WTRU ID), such as, for example, the user info of the target WTRU 72);
send, in response to completion of establishing the second layer-2 link, a second PC5 message to the source remote UE for complete of modification of the first layer-2 link (Perras, para. 185: any of the source 71 and the target 72 WTRUs may initiate (e.g., trigger) a PC5 link release procedure 780 for the (e.g., first) PC5 link via the first relay WTRU 701, for example, after the (e.g., second) PC5 link may be established via the second relay WTRU 702).
Perras does not appear to explicitly disclose send, in response to the completion of modification of the first layer-2 link, a PC5-RRC message to the source remote UE, wherein the PC5-RRC message includes a layer-2 identity (L2ID) of the second destination remote UE and a local identity for identifying the second destination remote UE.
In the same field of endeavor, 3GPP discloses send, in response to the completion of modification of the first layer-2 link, a PC5-RRC message to the source remote UE, wherein the PC5-RRC message includes a layer-2 identity (L2ID) of the second destination remote UE and a local identity for identifying the second destination remote UE (3GPP, pages 1-2: If the target UE accepts the PCS unicast link establishment request, then the target UE may perform the PC5 QoS flow establishment over PC5 unicast link, section 6.1.2.12. Moreover, section 6.1.2.12 further discloses pass the following parameters to the lower layers: the source and destination layer-2 ID. After Direct Communication Accept, the target UE (third UE) may perform the PC5 QoS flow establishment in which §6.1.2.12 becomes operative. Passing the parameters to lower layer is read as delivering them to an access stratum (AS) entity, the RRC layer is the control plane directly below PDCP and thus becomes the trigger for PCS-RRC message. One of ordinary skill in the pertinent art is capable of understanding that the cited section 6.1.2.12 of 3GPP instructs the UE to pass the parameters to lower layers, the RRC layer is obliged to encapsulate those parameters in a PCS-RRC message). 3GPP also discloses in section 6.1.2.12: pass the following parameters to the lower layers: the source and destination layer-2 ID)). The UE shall derive the PC5 QoS parameters based on the V2X application requirements provided by the upper layers (if available) and the V2X service identifier(s)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras with the teaching of 3GPP by using the above features such as sending a PC5-RRC message that includes a layer-2 identity of the second destination remote UE to the source remote UE as taught by 3GPP. The motivation for doing so would have been to perform PC5 QoS flow establishment over PC5 unicast link.
Regarding claim 6, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the relay UE of claim 5, wherein the first PC5 message includes a user info Identity (ID) or an upper layer ID of the second destination remote UE (Perras, para. 84, 98, 149: the term “user info” may refer to an application layer identifier. For example, a WTRU may be identified at the application layer based on this identifier. The user info may be used in direct communication (e.g., any of request and accept) messages to identify any of a source and a target WTRUs. That is, a first PC5 unicast link 410 may be established between a source WTRU 41 and a relay WTRU 40).
Regarding claim 7, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the relay UE of claim 5, wherein the second PC5 message includes a user info Identity (ID) or an upper layer ID of the second destination remote UE (Perras, para. 84, 98, 149: the term “user info” may refer to an application layer identifier. For example, a WTRU may be identified at the application layer based on this identifier. The user info may be used in direct communication (e.g., any of request and accept) messages to identify any of a source and a target WTRUs. That is, a second PC5 unicast link 411 may be establish between a target WTRU 41 and the relay WTRU 40).
Regarding claim 8, Perras as modified by 3GPP discloses the relay UE of claim 5, wherein the first PC5 message is a Link Modification Request message, and the second PC5 message is a Link Modification Accept message (Perras, abstract, para. 104, 106, 167: the first PC5 message is a Link Modification Request message and the second PC5 message is a Link Modification Accept message).
14. Claim(s) 13-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Perras et al. (US 20230224778 A1) in view of 3GPP (TS 24.587 V17.5.0, # of pages: 2, dated 03/2022) and further in view of BASU et al. (WO 2023072417 A1).
Regarding claim 13, Perras as modified by LEE discloses all the method of claim 1, but fails to disclose, however, in the same field of endeavor, BASU further discloses the relay UE transmits a third PC5-S message to the second destination remote UE for request of establishing the second layer-2 link in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 93: [0093]: At Step 3, the UE- to-UE Relay 405 broadcasts the Direct Communication Request received from the UE 1 (see signaling 425). Fig. 4 425. In 4[0093], the request is PCS5-S control frame. When Relay 405 (third UE) forwards it, it becomes the second PCS-5S message aimed at every potential peer including UE-3 (second UE));
the relay UE receives a fourth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for establishing a security context between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 95: arrow from UE-3 to 305 to UE-to-UE Relay 405. [0095]: At Step 4, the interested UE(s) exchange security information to establish a secure link via the UE-to-UE Relay 405 and negotiate the QoS. In the depicted embodiment, the UE-3 305 decides to establish a unicast (“UC”) connection, and the UE-1 205 and UE-3 305 authenticate and establish a security context for the unicast relay connection (see messaging 430). Fig. 4 430. In [0095], the security-setup handshake uses PC5-S signaling, the first frame by UE-3 toward Relay 405 maps to the third PC5-S message whose purpose is to establish a security context during the exchange security information);
the relay UE transmits a fifth PC5-S message to the second destination remote UE for completing establishment of the security context in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 95: Fig. 4 430 arrow from UE-to-UE Relay 405 to UE-3 to 305. [0095]: the UE-1 205 and UE-3 305 authenticate and establish a security context for the unicast relay connection (see messaging 430). A person of ordinary skill in the pertinent art would recognize that the security procedure includes a confirm/complete frame. That confirm is the fourth PCS-S message completing the security context); and
the relay UE receives a sixth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for completing the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, Fig. 4, S430, para. 96: Fig. 4 435. | [0096]: At Step 5, the UE-3 305 accepts the Unicast link establishment request by responding with a Direct Communication Accept message to the UE-to-UE Relay 405 (see messaging 435)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras as modified by LEE with the teaching of Karampatsis by using the above features such as the relay UE receives a fourth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for establishing a security context between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link as taught by Karampatsis. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve sidelink communication among a set of UEs by supporting a multipath unicast link between a source UE and a target UE.
Regarding claim 14, Perras as modified by LEE discloses all the subject matter of the method of claim 13, but fails to disclose, however, Karampatsis discloses wherein the fourth PC5-S message is received by using the L2ID of the second destination remote UE as Source L2ID (Karampatsis, para. 93: step 3, the UE-to-UE Relay 405 broadcasts the Direct Communication Request received from the UE 1 (see signaling 425). Moreover, the Direct Communication Request contains as Destination L2 ID the broadcast L2 ID indicating that UE-1 205 requests a unicast connection. Again, the request may include the application layer information provided by the V2X application in UE-1 205).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras as modified by LEE with the teaching of Karampatsis by using the above features such as the PC5-S message is received by using the L2ID of the second destination remote UE as Source L2ID as taught by Karampatsis. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve sidelink communication among a set of UEs by supporting a multipath unicast link between a source UE and a target UE.
Regarding claim 15, Perras as modified by LEE discloses all the relay UE of claim 5, but fails to disclose, however, in the same field of endeavor, BASU further discloses the relay UE transmits a third PC5-S message to the second destination remote UE for request of establishing the second layer-2 link in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 93: [0093]: At Step 3, the UE- to-UE Relay 405 broadcasts the Direct Communication Request received from the UE 1 (see signaling 425). Fig. 4 425. In 4[0093], the request is PCS5-S control frame. When Relay 405 (third UE) forwards it, it becomes the second PCS-5S message aimed at every potential peer including UE-3 (second UE));
the relay UE receives a fourth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for establishing a security context between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 95: arrow from UE-3 to 305 to UE-to-UE Relay 405. [0095]: At Step 4, the interested UE(s) exchange security information to establish a secure link via the UE-to-UE Relay 405 and negotiate the QoS. In the depicted embodiment, the UE-3 305 decides to establish a unicast (“UC”) connection, and the UE-1 205 and UE-3 305 authenticate and establish a security context for the unicast relay connection (see messaging 430). Fig. 4 430. In [0095], the security-setup handshake uses PC5-S signaling, the first frame by UE-3 toward Relay 405 maps to the third PC5-S message whose purpose is to establish a security context during the exchange security information);
the relay UE transmits a fifth PC5-S message to the second destination remote UE for completing establishment of the security context in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, para. 95: Fig. 4 430 arrow from UE-to-UE Relay 405 to UE-3 to 305. [0095]: the UE-1 205 and UE-3 305 authenticate and establish a security context for the unicast relay connection (see messaging 430). A person of ordinary skill in the pertinent art would recognize that the security procedure includes a confirm/complete frame. That confirm is the fourth PCS-S message completing the security context); and
the relay UE receives a sixth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for completing the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link (Karampatsis, Fig. 4, S430, para. 96: Fig. 4 435. | [0096]: At Step 5, the UE-3 305 accepts the Unicast link establishment request by responding with a Direct Communication Accept message to the UE-to-UE Relay 405 (see messaging 435)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras as modified by LEE with the teaching of Karampatsis by using the above features such as the relay UE receives a fourth PC5-S message from the second destination remote UE for establishing a security context between the second destination remote UE and the relay UE in the procedure of establishing the second layer-2 link as taught by Karampatsis. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve sidelink communication among a set of UEs by supporting a multipath unicast link between a source UE and a target UE.
Regarding claim 16, Perras as modified by LEE discloses all the method of claim 15, but fails to disclose, however, Karampatsis discloses wherein the fourth PC5-S message is received by using the L2ID of the second destination remote UE as Source L2ID (Karampatsis, para. 93: step 3, the UE-to-UE Relay 405 broadcasts the Direct Communication Request received from the UE 1 (see signaling 425). Moreover, the Direct Communication Request contains as Destination L2 ID the broadcast L2 ID indicating that UE-1 205 requests a unicast connection. Again, the request may include the application layer information provided by the V2X application in UE-1 205).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Perras as modified by LEE with the teaching of Karampatsis by using the above features such as the PC5-S message is received by using the L2ID of the second destination remote UE as Source L2ID as taught by Karampatsis. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve sidelink communication among a set of UEs by supporting a multipath unicast link between a source UE and a target UE.
Conclusion
15. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
a) LEE et al. (US 20220109996 A1) at least two remote UEs and a UE-to-UE relay receive provisioned security information from the wireless communication network, where the security information includes discovery parameters and relay security information. The security information provisioned by the wireless communication network is used to establish a connection between the two UEs and the UE-to-UE relay device including discovery of the UE-to-UE relay by the remote UEs. Furthermore, the provisioned security information is used to establish a secure connection between the two remote UEs via the UE-to-UE relay device.
b) Guo et al. (US 20220303254 A1) discloses The relay UE 108 may enable the UE-to-UE relay by facilitating discovery or serving as a repeater/amplifier. To provide these functions, the relay UE 108 may need to know routing information with respect to the UEs 104 and 112.
16. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN F VOLTAIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-3953. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-6:45 PM.
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, FARUK HAMZA can be reached at (571)272-7969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEAN F VOLTAIRE/Examiner, Art Unit 2466
/CHRISTOPHER M CRUTCHFIELD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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