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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION. —The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The claims conform to the alternative form, where the semicolon separating each claim portion are viewed as an “or.” Furthermore, claims 8 and 9 in their entirety are too ambiguous and unclear, where multiple interpretations of the claims can be found freely. For rejection purposes, examiner has taken the position that claims 8 and 9 are written in the alternative form.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that
form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented,
described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1, 2, and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable over Xu et al. (US PG Pub. 2025/0184259 A1, hereinafter “Xu”).
In regards to claim 1, Xu teaches A multi-hop parallel relay based networking system for connecting a source remote UE (user equipment) with a destination UE or next Generation NodeB (gNB) (¶ [0168] networking system for multi-hop communication system between a remote UE and a network device) comprises multiple parallel relay devices in multiple connected hops between the source remote UE and the destination UE or gNB (¶ [0168] FIG. 8 network system has multiple relay devices connecting the remote UE and the network); Uu link for connecting the destination UE or gNB with last hop of the multiple connected hops (¶ [0168] FIG. 8 Uu interface is used between last hop and network); PC-5 link for connecting the source remote UE with first hop of the multiple connected hops (¶ [0168] FIG. 8 PC5 Link used to connect remote UE to first hop as well as all other hops except to the network).
In regards to claim 2, Xu teaches the Uu link includes air interface between NR-UE (New Radio User equipment) and a gNB (next generation Node B) (¶ [0132-0133], [0168] FIG. 8 Uu interface is used between last hop and network, with the UE being 5G and the network being a gNB).
In regards to claim 3, Xu teaches the PC-5 link includes direct communication interface between a UE (user equipment) to another UE (user equipment) (¶ [0132-0133], [0168] FIG. 8 PC5 Link used to connect remote UE to first hop as well as all other hops except to the network, with the UE being 5G and the network being a gNB).
In regards to claim 4, Xu teaches each of the hops includes one or more relay devices and each of the hops is connected to its neighboring hops through the said PC-5 links (¶ [0168] FIG. 8 PC5 Link used to connect remote UE to first hop as well as all other hops except to the network, whereby the relay devices in a particular hop are connected to one or more relay devices from preceding hop through separate radio links (¶ [0168] FIG. 8 relay device in a hop is connected to the previous hop through radio link).
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.
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.
Claims 5, 6, 8, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US PG Pub. 2025/0048166 A1, hereinafter “Wang”) in view of Zhang et al. (US PG Pub. 2008/0002610 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”).
In regards to claim 5, Wang teaches A method of establishing RRC (radio resource control)-level connection and relay selection for multi-hop parallel relay topology in 5G NR (¶ [0009-0014], [0024], [0106] method for establishing multi-hop relay RRC connection with a gNB) comprising arranging discovered relay devices according to RSRP and SNR (¶ [0106-109], [0127] link quality can be RSRP, and UE takes RSRP measurements of potential relay devices and sorts them into a list); searching and discovering of possible relay device (¶ [0104] UE searches for candidate relay UEs).
However, Wang does not teach checking of all relay devices for unique ID; checking for number of the relay devices with unique ID, labelling them and checking whether all the said relay device received unique ID.
In an analogous art, Zhang teaches checking of all relay devices for unique ID (¶ [0066-0067] when the RS receives a ranging request for relay devices, it checks whether it includes the sending device’s ID); checking for number of the relay devices with unique ID, labelling them and checking whether all the said relay device received unique ID (¶ [0066-0067] if the device does not include its own unique ID in the ranging message, the RS stamps its message with an ID).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang into Wang to ensure messages are received and sent between base stations, increasing reliability and enhancing the user experience (¶ [0004]).
In regards to claim 6, the combination Wang and Zhang, specifically Wang teaches arranging discovered relay devices according to RSRP and SNR comprises checking the destination UE whether the said UE is in an outage or is a remote node (¶ [0104], [0106-109], [0127] link quality can be RSRP, and source UE takes link measurements of potential relay devices and sorts them into a list. Source UE checks whether UE can no longer maintain a connection through link quality); connecting the UE to the corresponding gNB if the UE is not a remote node or not in the outage (¶ [0051] if the UE is able, connect to the gNB); searching for possible relay devices if the UE is remote or in an outage (¶ [0104] source UE searches for candidate relay UEs if it can no longer maintain its connection); checking for any possible relay devices, if it is found, it will discover the possible relay device and if it is not found it will again search for possible relay devices (¶ [0183] source UE checks for relay devices, and if found will choose one); arranging the said discovered relay devices according to RSRP and SNR in descending orders (¶ [0106-109], [0127] link quality can be RSRP, and source UE takes link measurements of potential relay devices and sorts them into a list).
In regards to claim 8, the combination Wang and Zhang, specifically Wang teaches checking of all relay devices for unique ID comprises setting device ID to 1 for lth hop; checking the number of devices at lth hop is less than the maximum allowed devices at each hop (¶ [0125] source UE checks whether it has reached maximum number of candidate UEs); whereby if the number of devices is less than the maximum allowed device number ND, the device looks for possible relay devices for (l+1)th hop including checking for any possible relay devices that are variable or not; whereby if the relay devices are available, selecting the best relay device based on RSRP and SNR alternatively if any relay candidate in relay devices are unavailable incrementing the device counter and after incrementing the device counter, checking the number of the said relay devices at lth hop is less than the maximum allowed devices at each hop (¶ [0106-109], [0127] link quality can be RSRP, and UE takes RSRP measurements of potential relay devices and sorts them into a list); whereby if the number of the relay devices is greater than the allowed relay devices checking whether all the relay devices are connected for (l+1)th hop including checking for the relay devices with unique device ID; whereby if all the device IDs are unique and the number of devices is less than the maximum number of allowed devices for a hop, i.e., ND increasing the hop count by one and again checking the hop number Whether the maximum allowed hop is exceeded or not.
In regards to claim 9, the combination Wang and Zhang, specifically Zhang teaches checking for number of relay devices with unique ID (¶ [0066-0067] when the RS receives a ranging request for relay devices, it checks whether it includes the sending device’s ID), labelling them and checking whether all the said relay device received unique ID comprises looking for devices with unique IDs, if all the device IDs are not unique (¶ [0066-0067] if the device does not include its own unique ID in the ranging message, the RS stamps its message with an ID); labeling the relay devices connected through PC-5 links; looking for the remaining unique devices and arranging the remaining discovered devices in descending order; labeling all the devices appropriately and checking for all connected devices are unique or not; looking for the remaining unique devices, if all devices are not unique and incrementing the hop count by one and return to the step wherein checking the hop number, whether the maximum allowed hop is exceeded or not if all devices are unique.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to modify Zhang into Wang to ensure messages are received and sent between base stations, increasing reliability and enhancing the user experience (¶ [0004]).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US PG Pub. 2025/0048166 A1, hereinafter “Wang”) in view of Zhang et al. (US PG Pub. 2008/0002610 A1, hereinafter “Zhang”) in further view of Karthika et al. (WO2024/159437 A1, hereinafter “Karthika”).
In regards to claim 7, the combination Wang and Zhang do not teach searching and discovering of possible relay device comprises connecting the maximum ND devices through the PC-5 links; assigning the relay chain ID and hop ID to ND devices; checking whether any of ND devices connected to gNB; ending process if it is found connecting to gNB through RRC connection alternatively setting the hop count to 2 and checking the hop number whether the maximum allowed hop is exceeded or not; whereby after finishing the search for gNB if the hop count is less than the maximum allowed hop count, then the relay devices at hop l discover relay devices for the hop (l+1) and the relay devices at lth hop will look for any available relay devices and if no such devices are available, again discovering for possible relay devices.
In an analogous art, Karthika teaches searching and discovering of possible relay device comprises connecting the maximum ND devices through the PC-5 links (¶ [0064], [0107] UEs communicate via PC-5 links, finding new relay devices to send its discovery message to); assigning the relay chain ID and hop ID to ND devices (¶ [0]); checking whether any of ND devices connected to gNB (¶ [0114] relay or remote device finds other remote device); ending process if it is found connecting to gNB through RRC connection (¶ [0114] remote devices finds other remote device) alternatively setting the hop count to 2 and checking the hop number whether the maximum allowed hop is exceeded or not (¶ [0114-0115] if the other remote device is found, stops discovery. If not, keep finding new hops until the maximum number of hops is reached); whereby after finishing the search for gNB if the hop count is less than the maximum allowed hop count, then the relay devices at hop l discover relay devices for the hop (l+1) and the relay devices at lth hop will look for any available relay devices and if no such devices are available, again discovering for possible relay devices (¶ [0116] after finding the remote UE, relay reselection may occur based upon hop count being increased, where the relay devices search again for other hops to get to the remote UE).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to modify Karthika into the combination Wang and Zhang to increase the chance of discovery messages being received by relay UEs, increasing overall reliability of the network and improving the user experience (¶ [0086]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the applicant’s disclosure. Li et al. (US PG Pub. 2025/0056635 A1) teaches a method of multi-hop relay chain information, where the remote UE discovers relay UEs and creates a relay chain to another remote or relay UE.
Abedini et al. (US PG Pub. 2019/0110266 A1) teaches a method of a synchronizing relay devices within a integrated backhaul network.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY APOSTOLIDES whose telephone number is
(571) 272-4260. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 EST. 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, Un Cho can be reached at 571-272-7919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/A.A./
Examiner, Art Unit 2413
/UN C CHO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2413