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 .
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.
Claims 1, 5, 10, 15, 17, 21, 23-25 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding Claim 1, the claim recites the phrase “the UE” which is not defined. There is insufficient antecedent basis in the claim. Dependent claims 5, 10, 15, 17, 21, 23-25 are rejected as well.
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) 1, 5, 10, 15, 17, 21 and 23-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Back (US 20220053418) in view of Kuo (US 20210400759).
Regarding claim 1, Back discloses a communication method, performed by a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
sending by the UE, a source layer-2 ID of the first UE to a base station device ([0143], a remote UE may transmit the measurements together with the IDs (e.g., layer-2 IDs or layer-2 source identifiers (SRC IDs) of the candidate relay UE(s) to the gNB on a Uu link); wherein the source layer-2 ID is used to determine whether the first UE is a relay UE for sidelink communication, ([0145-147], fig. 12, because candidate relay UE(s) capable of conducting SL relay communication have reported their layer-2 IDs to the gNB by RRC sidelink UE information, the gNB may identify/determine the states of the candidate relay UE(s) reported by the remote UE), wherein the first UE in the relay function enabled state performs at least one of: sending a relay discovery signal; or receiving a relay discovery signal ([0138-139], receives discovery signals from a plurality of candidate relay UE(s)).
A relay node normally has relay function, to further support this feature, Kuo discloses the first UE has a relay function (Kuo, [0177-78], to support new relay related functions; relay enables the discovery of a source UE).
Kuo also discloses sending by the UE, a source layer-2 ID of the first UE to a base station device (Kuo, fig. 13, UE-2 sends Layer-2 ID); sending a relay discovery signal (Kuo, [0178], relay node enables the discovery of a source UE).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Back with the teachings given by Kuo. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide high data throughput (Kuo, [003-04]).
Claims 15, 17, 26, 31, 33-36 are rejected similarly with claim 1 noting that Back discloses a professor, memory and computer readable medium (Back, figs. 16-18, [0172).
Regarding claim 5, 24, 29, Back discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein a channel transmission quality of the first UE with the base station device meets a set transmission quality requirement ([0138][0145][0149], transmit only the IDs of candidate relay UE(s) with SL signal strengths within a preconfigured threshold range to the gNB; the BS may select a candidate relay UE with the smallest of the loads of relay UE having SL signal strengths within a preconfigured threshold range among the candidate relay UE(s)).
Regarding claim 10, 21, 30, Back and Kuo disclose the method according to claim 1, further comprising:
in response to a change of the source layer-2 ID of the first UE, sending a changed source layer-2 ID of the first UE to the base station device (Kuo, [0147], if UE-2 decides to change its identifier(s), UE-2 responds with a Link Identifier Update Response message which includes the new identifier(s) to use (including the new or changed Layer-2 ID)).
Regarding claim 23, 25, Back discloses the method according to claim 1, further comprising:
receiving configuration information required for switching from the base station device ([0150-53], the gNB makes a complicated determination/standards required to select (or switch) a relay (according to a situation such as channel/relay UE distribution) on behalf of the remote UE; information about one or more relay UEs or configuration information selected by the gNB ).
Regarding claim 27, Back discloses the method according to claim 26, further comprising:
receiving a switching measurement result from a second UE, wherein the switching measurement result comprises the source layer-2 ID of the first UE ([0143], the remote UE may measure the SL signal strengths (e.g., RSRP) of the discovery messages and/or communication messages received from the candidate relay UE(s) and transmit the measurements together with the IDs (e.g., layer-2 IDs or layer-2 source identifiers (SRC IDs) of the candidate relay UE(s) to the gNB),
Regarding claim 28, 32, Back discloses the method according to claim 27, further comprising:
sending configuration information required for switching to the first UE ([0141][0153], gNB may recommend a relay UE for selection); and
sending a switching command to the second UE, wherein the switching command indicates switching to the first UE ([0150-53], the gNB makes a complicated determination/standards required to select a relay (according to a situation such as channel/relay UE distribution) on behalf of the remote UE).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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