DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 of this title, 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 1-20 are rejected under U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al (US 20220225448), herein after as Li, in view of Li et al. (US 20230262797), herein after as Li2.
Regarding claim 1, Li discloses, A method at a first relay device (Fig. 16A and B, AMF 172), the method comprising:
receiving, from a wireless transmit/receive unit, WTRU, a first communication request comprising an identifier of the WTRU, information indicative of a service provided by an end relay device, and an identifier of the end relay device (Fig. 16A and B, par. 0293, illustrate the relay chain, i.e. each node in relay chain is functioning as relay to forward the message to next node, chain includes series of nodes, Remote UE (i.e. end relay device), UE 701 (i.e. WTRU i.e. a relay UE is a wireless transmit/receive unit as disclosed in par. 0005 multi-hope formation in a wireless communication network), AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device), PCF 184 (i.e. second relay device). If relay UE 701 decides to relay traffic for the remote UE, the relay UE 701 forwards remote UE's registration request to its serving AMF 172 (i.e. a first relay device receives information from node 701(i.e. WTRU) and its identifier) together with a message indicating that the relay UE 701 requests to establish a new relay chain, Par. 0263 Fig. 13, discloses relay UE 701 decapsulates the registration request and forwards the message to the served AMF 172. Relay UE 102 can append some more information to the remote UE's registration request, fig. 13, step 1302 shows the information included in registration request includes relay UE ID (i.e. identifier for WTRU), remote UE ID (i.e. identifier of end relay). Par. 0241, UE has not joined any relay chain but is authorized during the registration by network to act a potential intermediate or relay UE, i.e. information about UE is indicative of its providing service as intermediate relay or relay UE);
transmitting, to a second relay device, a second communication request comprising a first identifier of the first relay device and the information indicative of the service provided by the end relay device, the identifier of the WTRU and the identifier of the end relay device (Par. 0301, fig. 16A, AMF 172 sends PCF a relay chain formation (i.e. to second relay device, PCF being second relay device) request on behalf of the relay UE 701 by including several information, such as remote/relay UE information (i.e. identifiers of relay UE), relay policy ID, relay traffic characteristic and service/application ID);
receiving, from the second relay device, a first communication accept message comprising an identifier of the second relay device, the first identifier of the first relay device and the information indicative of the service provided by the end relay device, the identifier of the WTRU and the identifier of the end relay device (Par. 0302-0304 Fig. 16B, PCF 184, returns the acceptance message to form relay chain, reply includes relay chain ID, and relay configuration, 1608 response is sent to AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device) , i.e. relay chain configuration comprises all the relay nodes part of the relay chain = includes all the node’s identifiers including first relay device, WTRU device and end UE (i.e. relay device));
transmitting, to the WTRU, a second communication accept message comprising a second identifier of the first relay device (Par. 0305-0406, fig. 16B, 1609, AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device) sends to WTRU further (i.e. second forwarded) acceptance message which includes).
Li does not disclose, first relay device performing IP forwarding based on IP address.
Li2 discloses, receiving, from the WTRU or from the second relay device, a message including the identifier of the WTRU and information indicative of an IP address of the WTRU (Pa. 0098, user equipment is wireless terminal) Par. 102, using layer 3 based relay. The first relay device parses a data packet sent by the first user terminal to the second user equipment to the IP layer, and forward the data packet to the second user equipment based on information such as an IP address. Par. 105, fig. 3, first user equipment and second user equipment establish an end-to-end unicast connection through a plurality of relay devices, i.e. first relay device receives from WTRU or another relay device a data message indicative of an IP address of receiving device in this case a wireless device);
receiving an IP packet (Pa. 0098, user equipment is wireless terminal) Par. 102, using layer 3 based relay. The first relay device parses a data packet sent by the first user terminal to the second user equipment to the IP layer, and forward the data packet to the second user equipment based on information such as an IP address); and
based on whether a source IP address or a destination IP address of the IP packet corresponds to the IP address of the WTRU, forwarding the IP packet to the second relay device or to the WTRU (Pa. 0098, user equipment is wireless terminal) Par. 102, using layer 3 based relay. The first relay device parses a data packet sent by the first user terminal to the second user equipment to the IP layer, and forward the data packet to the second user equipment based on information such as an IP address. Par. 105, fig. 3, first user equipment and second user equipment establish an end-to-end unicast connection through a plurality of relay devices, i.e. first relay device receives from WTRU or another relay device a data message indicative of an IP address of receiving device in this case a wireless device, IP communication).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Li, by teaching of receiving, from the WTRU or from the second relay device, a message including the identifier of the WTRU and information indicative of an IP address of the, receiving an IP packet and based on whether a source IP address or a destination IP address of the IP packet corresponds to the IP address of the WTRU, forwarding the IP packet to the second relay device or to the WTRU, as taught by Li2, to combine intelligent routing of layer 3 with the speed and efficiency of layer 2 relays.
Regarding claim 2, The method of claim 1,
Li further discloses, further comprising: during a discovery procedure, providing an identifier of the first relay device to the WTRU and obtaining an identifier of the second relay device (Par. 0292, if a UE does not find any existing relay chain during discovery, then the request to establish a PC5 connection can trigger the procedure of forming a new relay chain, Par. 0293,FIG. 16 (FIGS. 16A-16B) illustrates the procedure of network assisted relay chain formation triggered by the PC5 link establishment procedure, which is initiated by a remote UE, fig. 16A-16B shows that at step 1808, 1609, AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device) receives relay chain configuration from PCF 184 (i.e. second relay device), therefore first relay device receives identifier of the second relay device as part of the relay configuration information. fig. 16A-16B at step 1609, relay UE (701, i.e. WTRU) receives registration accept message from AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device), therefore first relay device provides identifier of the first relay device as part of registration accept message).
Regarding claim 3, The method of claim 2,
Li further discloses, wherein: the first identifier of the first relay device, the second identifier of the first relay device and the identifier of the second relay device are data link layer identifiers (Par. 0387, The PC5-link-establishment request message can include an encapsulated network registration request indicating a layer 2 ID for the remote UE (e.g., FIG. 13, FIG. 14).).
Regarding claim 4, The method of claim 3,
Li further discloses, wherein: the first identifier of the first relay device is identical to the second identifier of the first relay device (Par. 0275, registration request is received by multiple AMFs 172s, the remote UE 102 will notify network by giving AMF ID and its UE ID to resolve the conflict when it receives multiple registration accept message, i.e. AMF ID (i.e. first relay device) is provided by the registering UE which is same as ID of AMF from which UE will receive registration accept message ).
Regarding claim 5, The method of claim 1,
Li further discloses, wherein: the first communication request further comprises information indicative of a selected path to the end relay device, the second communication request further comprises information indicative of the selected path to the end relay device (Par. 0294, A remote UE 102 sends PC5 link establishment request to the selected UE 701. In the request message, the remote UE 102 encapsulates the registration request and an indication to request the selected UE 701 to relay traffic for it. Some other information can be included, which is similar to those included in step S1301).
Regarding claim 6, The method of claim 2,
Li further discloses, further comprising: obtaining, during the discovery procedure, an identifier of the WTRU (Par. 0296, fig. 16A, If relay UE 701 decides to relay traffic for the remote UE 102, the relay UE 701 forwards remote UE's registration request to its serving AMF 172 together with a message indicating that the relay UE 701 requests to establish a new relay chain, i.e. during discovery procedure for establishing new relay chain, AMF 172 (i.e. first relay device) obtains identifier of relay UE 701).
Regarding claim 7, Li in view of Li2 meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 16-19, Xie meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 2-5.
Regarding claim 8-12, Li meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 2-6.
Regarding claim 13, Li in view of Li2 meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 14-16, Li meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 2-4.
Regarding claim 17, Li in view of Li2 meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 18-20, Li meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 2-4.
Conclusion
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/A.D./ Examiner, Art Unit 2422
/JOHN W MILLER/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2422