DETAILED ACTION
This office action in response to an application filing received January 18, 2024. The Application Data Sheet received on January 18, 2024 has been considered.
Claims 1-5 are pending.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed January 18, 2024, May 02, 2024 and October 03, 2024 have been considered.
Claim Objections
Claim 4, 5 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 4 and 5, recites “message includes information regarding an RLC channel and information a radio bearer.”, examiner suggest it should read “message includes information regarding an RLC channel and information regarding a radio bearer.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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, 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.
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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG et al., US 20210153063 A1, (hereinafter ZHANG) in view of Xu et al., US 10945179 B2, (hereinafter Xu).
Regarding claim 1-5, ZHANG teaches a communication control method,
comprising: configuring, by a network apparatus, to a first user equipment a path between the network apparatus and the first user equipment via a second user equipment wherein the configuring includes transmitting, by the network apparatus, a message to configure the path to the first user equipment (see ¶ [0144], e.g., For a remote UE, which may be a destination remote UE or a source remote UE, at 801 the remote UE receives configuration signaling for UC with configured connectivity (e.g., via multiple relay UEs only, via direct and indirect connections, with multiple-hop relays, or any combination of these), and with resource allocation(s) for UC transmissions and receptions. Signaling can be semi-static or dynamic, through RRC, DCI, or SCI, and may be received directly or indirectly from a BS in the example shown; ¶ [0011] the UC bearer attributes include any one or more of: a UC bearer identity; a UC bearer index; one or more destination identifiers; one or more source identifiers; a total number of UC bearer streams processed from the associated PDCP bearer; an indication of whether the UC bearer comprises a split PDCP bearer or a duplicated PDCP bearer; an indication of an identifier of a relay path or route; an indication of a total number of UC paths or routes for a UE; ), and
the message includes information regarding a radio bearer (see ¶ [0015], e.g., A third aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for a remote UE. The method involves receiving signaling to enable relay-based UE cooperation (UC) by a group of UEs, and receiving a configuration. The group of UEs includes the remote UE and a relay UE. The configuration includes adaptation information for processing of UC bearer traffic. The UC bearer traffic includes a UC bearer and UC bearer attributes, and the UC bearer includes either a split packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) bearer or a duplicated PDCP bearer indicated in the UC bearer attributes. The method further includes communicating the UC bearer traffic with the relay UE. See ¶ [0054], e.g., A UE cooperation bearer (UC bearer or UC radio bearer) is defined herein as a “split” bearer (e.g., a split of PDCP DRB(s) and/or SRB(s) or a split of PDCP bearer or bearers); see ¶ [0055] An adaptation protocol (AP) or adaptation information, for example, can be functionally considered here as part of a PDCP enhanced feature when a split or duplication of PDCP bearer(s) (or PDCP context, PDCP bearer context) is formed, called UE cooperation (UC) bearer when UC is configured. The AP is used to provide additional information, also referred to herein as a UC bearer attribute or UC bearer attributes, to describe newly formed UC traffic, also referred to herein as UC bearer traffic, for relaying, switching, and/or routing towards a destination. A destination may be a UE or a network device. See ¶ [0147] 804 illustrates one or more MAC entities handling multiple RLC streams (or entities), including one for each UC bearer. One or more parameters including any of bearer priority, a reliability requirement, or a desired or required QoS, may impact bearer traffic handling, and may be reflected in a MAC logical channel with a logical group ID for example),
however, it does not explicitly indicate information regarding an RLC channel.
Xu teaches, the message includes information regarding an RLC channel (see Fig. 4, e.g., element 408, Col. 22, lines 17-41, e.g., S408: If the base station allows the eRemote UE to perform the communication path switching, the base station sends a second message to the eRemote UE, where the second message carries at least one of first bearer configuration information and first indication information that is used to instruct the eRemote UE to perform the communication path switching; … the first bearer configuration information includes a mapping relationship between at least one first radio bearer and at least one second radio bearer, and configurations of a radio link control entity and a logical channel that are corresponding to the at least one first radio bearer. The first radio bearer is a radio bearer used for the communication link between the eRemote UE and the eRelay UE, and the second radio bearer is a radio bearer used for the communication link between the eRemote UE and the base station.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the message containing configuration of ZHANG to incorporate the teachings of Xu to include information regarding an RLC channel. Doing so would facilitate in achieving smoothly completing the communication path switching as suggested by Xu (see Col. 3, lines 55-59, e.g., The first user equipment may perform corresponding processing based on information included in the second message, so as to smoothly complete the communication path switching.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20250267650 A1 issued to MOCHIZUKI et al.
US 20240121837 A1 issued to CHENG et al.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to POONAM SHARMA whose telephone number is (571)272-6579. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru 8:30-5:30 pm, ET.
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, Kevin Bates can be reached at (571) 272-3980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/POONAM SHARMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
Prosecution Insights