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 .
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.
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/634,081 filed on 12 April 2024. The response filed 30 July 2026 amends claims 1, 12, 16, 19, and 20, cancels claims 15, adds claim 21, and presents arguments is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-14 and 16-21 are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Independent Claims 1, 19, and 20
On pages 9-10 of the response filed 30 July 2026, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection made on the 7 May 2026 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant’s arguments, regarding the rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103, have been fully considered.
On pages 9-10, Applicant argues that the Wang/Zhang system fails to teach or suggest “wherein the assistance information indicates the recommended traffic split by indicating a mapping of one or more quality of service (QoS) flows to the first connection and the second connection.” Applicant argues that neither Wang nor Zhang discloses the amended limitations. Examiner respectfully disagrees and finds this argument unpersuasive. Zhang, in paragraph 0465, states “connection Information: This data type provides the mapping of connection ID and connection type. This data type contains the following information.” Further, Zhang, in paragraph 0536, states “the GMA data plane entity 2200 performs various functions such as path quality measurements (QoS, packet loss, latency, etc.), multi-link traffic steering (e.g., traffic splitting/steering, reordering, retransmission, duplication, coding, fragmentation, concatenation, etc.), and QoS-aware traffic shaping and queueing (e.g., priority queuing (PQ), Strict Priority (SP), Weighted Round Robin (WRR), etc.).” One having ordinary skill in the art would combine the path quality measurements of the multi-link traffic steering with the sidelink relay of the Wang system in order to map the split traffic across multiple links. Therefore, Examiner finds this argument unpersuasive.
Dependent Claims 2-14 and 16-18
On pages 9-10 of the response filed 30 July 2026, Applicant addresses the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection made on the 7 May 2026 Non-Final Rejection. Applicant submits that these claims are allowable at least as depending from an allowable independent claim, and further in view of the amendments to the independent claims, and the comments provided above. As per the comments above, Examiner found the arguments unpersuasive.
Newly Added Claim 21
On pages 10-11 of the response filed 30 July 2026, Applicant respectfully requests entry and full consideration of Claim 21. Examiner acknowledges this request and will now consider newly added claim 21.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 16 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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.
Claims 1-14 and 17-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPUB 2022/0217612 A1 to Wang et al and in view of US PGPUB 2021/0400537 A1 to Zhang et al.
Regarding Claim 1, Wang discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE) (FIG. 11 and 0043 provides for one UE node), comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors individually or collectively configured to: identify, by the first UE, a recommended traffic split between a first connection associated with the first UE and a second connection associated with a second UE (FIG. 11, 0039, and 0043 provides for identify, by the relay UE, a packet-based split between a first connection associated with the relay UE and a second connection associated with destination node 1120). Wang doesn’t explicitly disclose identify, by a modem of the first UE, a recommended traffic split; and provide, by the modem, assistance information indicating the recommended traffic split using a cross-layer application programming interface (API), wherein the assistance information indicates the recommended traffic split by indicating a mapping of one or more quality of service (QoS) flows to the first connection and the second connection. Zhang, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses identify, by a modem of the first UE, a recommended traffic split (FIG. 6 and 0111 provides for identify cross-layer mechanism to dynamically split traffic over multiple links); and provide, by the modem, assistance information indicating the recommended traffic split using a cross-layer application programming interface (API) (FIG. 6 and 0112-0122 provides for provide, by the client, traffic splitting operations using cross-layer interface 602a), wherein the assistance information indicates the recommended traffic split by indicating a mapping (0465 provides for mapping Connection ID and connection type) of one or more quality of service (QoS) flows to the first connection and the second connection (0536-0539 provides for QoS path quality measurements to split multi-link traffic). One of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filed date of the claimed invention would have recognized the ability to utilize the teachings of Zhang for modem circuitry to traffic split. The dynamic traffic splitting of Zhang, when implemented with the cooperative communication for sidelink relay of the Wang system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to split traffic in order to distribute traffic over multiple links. Therefore, the examiner concludes it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to utilize the dynamic traffic splitting of Zhang with the cooperative communication for sidelink relay of the Wang system for the desirable purpose of splitting the traffic across the sidelink relay.
Regarding Claim 2, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assistance information is provided to an application client of the first UE (Zhang, FIG. 6 and 0112-0122 provides for provide, by the client, traffic splitting operations using cross-layer interface 602a), and the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: forward, via the application client, the assistance information to an application server, wherein the cross-layer API is to the application client (Zhang, FIG. 6 and 0112-0122 provides for forward to server 140). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 3, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to forward the assistance information to the application server based at least in part on in-band signaling or control plane signaling (Zhang, 0049 provides for Control Plane signaling schemes). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 4, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assistance information includes information on a first link condition associated with the first connection and a second link condition associated with the second connection, and the information indicates one or more of a throughput, a bandwidth, a delay (Zhang, 0118 provides for traffic splitting procedure and queueing delay threshold), or a sidelink condition for each connection.
Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 5, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assistance information includes a flow direction associated with the recommended traffic split, and the flow direction is an uplink flow direction or a downlink flow direction (Zhang, 0403-0409 provides for delivering in the UL direction). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 6, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the recommended traffic split is for a downlink adaptive load balancing via an application server (Zhang, 0406 provides for DL Delivery) Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 7, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the recommended traffic split is for an uplink adaptive load balancing via the first UE (Zhang, 0407 provides for UL Delivery) Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 8, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein a splitting of uplink packets of a service data flow occurs above an Internet Protocol (IP) layer of the first UE using a multipath quick user datagram protocol Internet connection (MPQUIC) (Zhang, 0053 provides for the MPQUIC) or multipath transmission control protocol (MPTCP) aware application of the first UE. Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 9, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 8, wherein the cross-layer API is a dedicated API to the MPQUIC (Zhang, 0053 and 0476 provides for the MPQUIC) or MPTCP aware application. Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 10, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: adopt, by the MPQUIC or MPTCP aware application, the recommended traffic split, wherein the recommended traffic split is an uplink traffic split (Zhang, 0053 and 0476 provides for the MPQUIC); or provide, to the modem, feedback indicating that the recommended traffic split is not adopted. Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 11, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: control, via the modem, a load balancing or splitting of packets based at least in part on the assistance information when an aggregation or splitting of packets is above an Internet Protocol (IP) layer of an application server or of the first UE, respectively (Zhang, FIG. 6 and 0114-0116 and provides for splitting traffic based on UL cross-layer interface). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 12, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more QoS flows comprise two QoS flows, and the recommended traffic split is to satisfy a multimodal synchronization requirement for the two QoS flows, wherein the two QoS flows are associated with two or more of: a visual QoS flow, an audio QoS flow, or a tactile QoS flow (Zhang, 0905 provides for traffic shaping ensure QoS). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 13, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: receive, from the second UE, information to support a traffic split between the first connection and the second connection (Zhang, FIG. 6 and 0114-0116 and provides for splitting traffic based on UL cross-layer interface). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 14, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively configured to: receive, by the modem from an application client of the first UE, an indication of possible service data flows for which the modem is able to provide assistance information (Zhang, FIG. 6 and 0114-0116 and provides for splitting traffic based on UL cross-layer interface). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 17, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the assistance information is provided based at least in part on a triggering condition being satisfied (Zhang, 0112-0122 provides for traffic splitting operations using cross-layer interface 602a). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 18, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein a policy and control function (PCF) generation of policy and charging control (PCC) rules is based at least in part on modem-initiated signaling from the modem (Zhang, 0060 provides for PCF in the MEC platform). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding Claim 19, similar rejection where the apparatus of claim 1 teaches the method of claim 19.
Regarding Claim 20, similar rejection where the apparatus of claim 1 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 20.
Regarding Claim 21, the Wang/Zhang system discloses the method of claim 19, wherein the mapping indicates that: a first multimodal QoS flow is to be associated with the first connection (0536 provides for multi-link traffic steering QoS measurements for paths); and the first multimodal QoS flow or a second multimodal QoS flow is to be associated with the second connection (claim 90 provides for quality or service flow ID, or QFI, for a path). Same motivation as claim 19.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US PGPUB 2024/0422624 A1 to Perez Garcia et al discloses requesting enough QoS to support the split rendering process.
US PGPUB 2023/0216767 A1 to Salem et al discloses splitting a service over multiple technologies.
US PGPUB 2025/0212048 A1 to Di Girolamo et al discloses evenly splitting PDB of multiple QoS flows.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCHQUITA GOODWIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm 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, Tonia Dollinger can be reached on (571) 272-4170. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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