DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 102
2. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
3. Claims 1-3, 8, 10-11, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Leng et al (US 20230422151, hereinafter referred to as Leng).
Re claim 1, Leng teaches a relay apparatus (First terminal device, Fig. 4; Relay UE, Fig. 5) comprising:
(i) a transceiver (transceiver unit/transceiver, Fig. 8-9) configured to communicate with remote user equipment ("UE") (second terminal device, Fig. 4; remote UE, Fig. 5) and with a serving cell (network device, Fig. 5) in a mobile wireless communication network (Fig. 4-5, Fig. 8-9, Par 0057, Par 0108, Par 0182-0184, Par 0189);
(ii) a processor (Processing unit/Processor, Fig. 8-9) coupled to the transceiver (transceiver unit/transceiver, Fig. 8-9), the processor configured to cause the apparatus to:
(iii) transmit, to the remote UE, information for system information blocks ("SIBs") provided by the serving cell (transmitting updated SIB to the remote UE, Fig. 5) (Par 0130-0136);
(iv) receive, from the remote UE, a request for a particular system information block ("SIB") (receiving first information from the second terminal device, Fig. 4; receiving on demand SI request from the remote UE, Fig. 5) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0057-0061, Par 0070, Par 0108-0110);
(v) acquire a set of SIBs from the serving cell (acquiring SIBs from the network device, S504, Fig. 5) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0074, Par 0085-0091, Par 0113-0115, Par 0118-0120, Par 0124-0127); and
(vi) transmit, to the remote UE, a valid version of the particular SIB requested by the remote UE (transmitting requested SIBs to the remote UE), using a sidelink channel (PC5 interface) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0074-0076, Par 0085-0092, Par 0127-0129).
Claim 10 recites a method performing the functions recited in claim 1 and thereby, is rejected for the reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1.
Re claim 2, Leng teaches to determine whether the valid version of the particular SIB is available in local memory; and acquire, from the serving cell, the particular SIB, if the valid version is not available in the local memory (acquiring unavailable SIBs from the network device) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0080-0092, Par 0113-0115, Par 0118-0120, Par 0124-0129).
Re claim 3, Leng teaches to receive a system information message containing a plurality of SIBs, and wherein, to transmit the valid version of the particular SIB, the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to forward only a requested subset of the plurality of SIBs (transmitting valid SIBs to the remote UE based on the SIB request from the remote UE) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0080-0092, Par 0113-0115, Par 0118-0120, Par 0124-0129).
Re claims 8, 13, Leng teaches to transmit System Information Block #1 ("SIB1") to the remote UE via sidelink transmission (transmitting updated SIB1 to the remote UE), wherein the sidelink transmission comprises a unicast transmission, a groupcast transmission, or a broadcast transmission (Updated SIB is transmitted to the remote UE, Fig. 5) (Fig. 5, Par 0130-0136).
Re claim 11, Leng teaches a user equipment ("UE") apparatus (second terminal device, Fig. 4; remote UE, Fig. 5) comprising:
(i) a transceiver (transceiver unit/transceiver, Fig. 8-9) configured to communicate with a relay UE (First terminal device, Fig. 4; Relay UE, Fig. 5) (Fig. 4-5, Fig. 8-9, Par 0057-0059, Par 0108-0110, Par 0182-0184, Par 0189-0190);
(ii) a processor (Processing unit/Processor, Fig. 8-9) coupled to the transceiver (transceiver unit/transceiver, Fig. 8-9), the processor configured to cause the apparatus to:
(iii) receive, from the relay UE, information for system information blocks ("SIBs") provided by a serving cell in a mobile wireless communication network (receiving updated SIB from the relay UE, Fig. 5) (Par 0130-0136);
(iv) transmit, to the relay UE, a request for a required system information block ("SIB") (transmitting first information to the first terminal device, Fig. 4; transmitting on demand SI request to the relay UE, Fig. 5) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0057-0061, Par 0070, Par 0108-0110); and
(v) receive, from the relay UE, a valid version of the required SIB (receiving requested SIBs from the relay UE) via a sidelink channel (PC5 interface) (Fig. 4-5, Par 0074-0076, Par 0085-0092, Par 0127-0129).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. Claims 4 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Shimoda et al (US 20240187960, hereinafter referred to as Shimoda).
Re claims 4, 12, Leng does not explicitly disclose to transmit a physical sidelink data channel ("PSSCH") transmission, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit, to the remote UE, sidelink control information ("SCI") that indicates which of the SIBs provided by the serving cell are contained in the PSSCH transmission, wherein the PSSCH transmission comprises a unicast transmission, a groupcast transmission, or a broadcast transmission.
Shimoda teaches to transmit a physical sidelink data channel ("PSSCH") transmission (transmitting SI received from the gNB via SL-SCH), wherein the processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit, to the remote UE, sidelink control information ("SCI") that indicates which of the SIBs provided by the serving cell are contained in the PSSCH transmission (SCI indicating the SI transmitted via SL-SCH), wherein the PSSCH transmission comprises a unicast transmission, a groupcast transmission, or a broadcast transmission (SI transmission is any of the unicast transmission, a groupcast transmission, or a broadcast transmission) (Par 0569-0571, Par 0576-0578, Par 0580-0588).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature to transmit a physical sidelink data channel ("PSSCH") transmission, wherein the processor is further configured to cause the apparatus to: transmit, to the remote UE, sidelink control information ("SCI") that indicates which of the SIBs provided by the serving cell are contained in the PSSCH transmission, wherein the PSSCH transmission comprises a unicast transmission, a groupcast transmission, or a broadcast transmission, as taught by Shimoda for the purpose of efficiently sending to a remote UE the necessary system information essential for the communication between the remote UE and the gNB via the relay UE, as taught by Shimoda (Par 0569, Par 0571-0572, Par 0579-0580).
6. Claims 5, 9, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng and Shimoda as applied to claim 4 above and further in view of Kang et al (US 20220124475, hereinafter referred to as Kang).
Re claim 5. Leng does not explicitly disclose that the SCI comprises a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB.
Kang teaches that the SCI comprises a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB (Par 0189, Par 0194-0195).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature that the SCI comprises a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB, as taught by Kang for the purpose of sending system information message via a relay UE to provide coverage expansion, data transmission reliability increase, and device power consumption reduction, as taught by Kang (Par 0013-0015).
Re claims 9, 14, Leng does not explicitly disclose to receive Radio Resource Control ("RRC") signaling comprising a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB.
Kang teaches to receive Radio Resource Control ("RRC") signaling comprising a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB (Par 0020-0021, Par 0164-0165, Par 0215).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature to receive Radio Resource Control ("RRC") signaling comprising a bitmap that indicates the particular SIB, as taught by Kang for the purpose of sending system information message via a relay UE to provide coverage expansion, data transmission reliability increase, and device power consumption reduction, as taught by Kang (Par 0013-0015).
7. Claims 6, 7, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Leng as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Pan (US 20220141756, hereinafter referred to as Pan) and Gao et al (US 20220053321, hereinafter referred to as Gao).
Re claim 6, Leng does not explicitly disclose to transmit to a reserved Layer-2 Destination Identifier ("L2 DST ID"), the reserved L2 DST ID being composed of a hexadecimal value of 'FFFFFF’.
Pan teaches to transmit to a reserved Layer-2 Destination Identifier ("L2 DST ID") (common Layer-2 Identity (ID) as Destination Layer-2 ID) (Fig. 14, Abstract, Par 0005, Par 0375-0377, Par 0383-0387, Par 0398-0400).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature to transmit to a reserved Layer-2 Destination Identifier ("L2 DST ID"), as taught by Pan for the purpose of properly delivering or forwarding the system information from the network node via a relay UE, as taught by Pan (Par 0005).
Gao teaches that the reserved L2 DST ID being composed of a hexadecimal value of 'FFFFFF’ (Par 0026, Par 0041).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature that the reserved L2 DST ID being composed of a hexadecimal value of 'FFFFFF’, as taught by Gao for the purpose of introducing a long/extended identifier to provide support for an increased number of users and devices, as taught by Gao (Par 0003-0005).
Re claim 7, Leng does not explicitly disclose that the L2 DST ID is a SIB-specific identifier corresponding to the particular SIB.
Pan teaches that the L2 DST ID is a SIB-specific identifier corresponding to the particular SIB (Fig. 14-15, Par 0375-0377, Par 0383-0387, Par 0398-0405).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature that the L2 DST ID is a SIB-specific identifier corresponding to the particular SIB, as taught by Pan for the purpose of properly delivering or forwarding the system information from the network node via a relay UE, as taught by Pan (Par 0005).
Re claim 15, Leng does not explicitly disclose that the relay UE comprises an in-coverage UE device of the mobile wireless communication network, wherein the apparatus comprises an out-of coverage UE device or an in-coverage UE device that is not connected to a same serving cell as the relay UE.
Pan teaches that the relay UE comprises an in-coverage UE device of the mobile wireless communication network (relay is in coverage of a cell, Fig. 12), wherein the apparatus comprises an out-of coverage UE device (remote UE is out of coverage, Fig. 12) or an in-coverage UE device that is not connected to a same serving cell as the relay UE (Fig. 12, Par 0266, Par 0293, Par 0380-0382).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Leng by including the feature that the relay UE comprises an in-coverage UE device of the mobile wireless communication network, wherein the apparatus comprises an out-of coverage UE device or an in-coverage UE device that is not connected to a same serving cell as the relay UE, as taught by Pan for the purpose of properly delivering or forwarding the system information from the network node via a relay UE, as taught by Pan (Par 0005).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HARUN UR R CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)270-3895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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, Kwang B Yao can be reached at 5712723182. 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.
/HARUN CHOWDHURY/Examiner, Art Unit 2473