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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 7/31/2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Paladugu et al. (US Publication 2022/0418015 A1) further in view of Kang et al. (KR 20220043715 A).
In regards to claims 11 and 14, Paladugu et al. (US Publication 2022/0418015 A1) teaches, a user equipment (UE), comprising: a processor (see figure 2, processors 280); and a memory (see memory 282 in figure 2) in electronic communication with the processor, wherein: the UE is a remote UE (see remote UE in figure 5), and the memory stores instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the UE to: apply, upon initiating a Radio Resource Control (RRC) establishment procedure and upon determining that an RRC connection to a base station is performed via a relay UE, a default configuration used for a Radio Link Control (RLC) bearer to transmit a Signaling Radio Bearer 0 (SRB0) message via the relay UE (see paragraph 161; the remote UE 705 may transmit an RRC setup request message to the network entity 715 via the relay UE 710 to establish the relay connection. The remote UE 705 may transmit the RRC setup request message using the SRB that is to be used for RRC messages using a common control channel (e.g., SRB0). As the remote UE 705 may not be aware of, or may not be configured with, the bearer identifier information at this time, the remote UE 705 may use the default remote UE bearer identifier to route the traffic to the SRB that is to be used for RRC messages using a common control channel (e.g., SRB0). The default remote UE bearer identifier may be pre-configured at the remote UE 705 and/or may be a reserved remote UE bearer identifier for RRC messages transmitted over SRB0), and forgo applying the default configuration upon determining that the RRC connection to the base station is performed directly and without utilizing the relay UE (see figure 4 and see paragraph 112; the UE 405 may communicate directly with the base station 110 via a direct link 430. For example, the uplink communication 415 may be transmitted via the direct link 430. A communication transmitted via the direct link 430 between the UE 405 and the base station 110 (e.g., in the uplink communication 415) does not pass through and is not relayed by the relay UE 410), wherein: the default configuration includes a configuration of an RLC mode (see paragraph 161; The relay UE 710 may be configured (or pre-configured) with the default remote UE bearer identifier in a similar manner to enable the relay UE 710 to route traffic to the appropriate RLC channels when receiving traffic that uses the default remote UE bearer identifier (e.g., in a PC5 adaptation layer header)).
In further regards to claims 11 and 14, Paladugu fails to teach, the default configuration including a logical channel group and a value of priority and the logical channel group being group 0.
Kang et al. (KR 20220043715 A) teaches the default configuration including a logical channel group and the logical channel group being group 0 (see the attached section from the Kang reference t ; i. the default configuration including a logical channel group and the logical channel group being group 0; iv. The logical channel groups of SL-SRB-M and SL-SRB-N may be set to the same value. For example, the logical channel group of SL-SRB-M and SL-SRB-N may be set to LCG0) and a value of the priority (see the attached second section from the Kang reference sent with the present Non-Final Rejection; sidelink priority).
Kang and Paladugu both relate to management between a remote UE and a relay UE.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present application to incorporate the LCG ID as taught by Kang into the configuration information of Paladugu. The motivation to do so would be to provide structured and efficient traffic management and QoS assurance by grouping logical channels with similar requirements.
In regards to claim 12, Paladugu teaches, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the UE to: apply, upon initiating an RRC connection resume procedure, the default configuration used for the RLC bearer to transmit the SRB0 message via the relay UE (see paragraph 152; As shown by reference number 745, the network entity 715 may transmit an indication of the remote UE identifier to the remote UE 705 via an RRC message (e.g., an NR RRC message). For example, the RRC message may be an RRC setup message, an RRC resume message, an RRC reestablishment message, and/or an RRC reconfiguration message, among other examples; see paragraph 161; one or more access stratum SRBs, such as SRB0 (which may be for RRC messages using a common control channel). The relay UE 710 may be configured (or pre-configured) with the default remote UE bearer identifier in a similar manner to enable the relay UE 710 to route traffic to the appropriate RLC channels when receiving traffic that uses the default remote UE bearer identifier (e.g., in a PC5 adaptation layer header)).
In regards to claim 13, Paladugu teaches, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the UE to: apply, upon initiating an RRC connection reestablishment procedure, the default configuration used for the RLC bearer to transmit the SRBO message via the relay UE (see paragraph 152; As shown by reference number 745, the network entity 715 may transmit an indication of the remote UE identifier to the remote UE 705 via an RRC message (e.g., an NR RRC message). For example, the RRC message may be an RRC setup message, an RRC resume message, an RRC reestablishment message, and/or an RRC reconfiguration message, among other examples; see paragraph 161; one or more access stratum SRBs, such as SRB0 (which may be for RRC messages using a common control channel). The relay UE 710 may be configured (or pre-configured) with the default remote UE bearer identifier in a similar manner to enable the relay UE 710 to route traffic to the appropriate RLC channels when receiving traffic that uses the default remote UE bearer identifier (e.g., in a PC5 adaptation layer header)).
Conclusion
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/JAY P PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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