DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Preliminary Amendment Acknowledgement
The Preliminary Amendment filed on 05/10/2024 has been acknowledged and considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-16, 19 and 25-26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hong et al. (Pub. No. US 2019/0327660).
Regarding claim 1. Hong teaches a method for assisting cell selection or reselection in a relay-assisted wireless network, the method being performed by a network node (Hong, the Abstract), the method comprising:
providing, towards a user equipment backhaul link characteristics of a least a first wireless backhaul link, the UE having an end-to-end wireless link comprising a wireless access link and at least the first wireless backhaul link between itself and a donor node of the relay-assisted wireless network, wherein the backhaul link characteristics provided toward the user equipment are for assisting the user equipment to derive an end-to-end wireless link quality metric for the end-to-end wireless link when performing a cell selection or a reselection procedure (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [100]; Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: a UE is provided with broadcast information from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.).
Regarding claim 10. Hong teaches a method for cell selection or reselection in a relay-assisted wireless network, the method being performed by a user equipment, the user equipment having an end-to-end wireless link comprising a wireless access link and at least a first wireless backhaul link between itself and a donor node of the relay-assisted wireless network (Hong, the Abstract), the method comprising:
receiving, from a relay node of the relay-assisted wireless network, backhaul link characteristics of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [100], [138]-[139]: a UE is provided with broadcast information from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.);
deriving an end-to-end wireless link quality metric for the end-to-end wireless link between the user equipment and the donor node from access link characteristics of the wireless access link and the received backhaul link characteristics (Hong, Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: obtaining and analyzing broadcast information relating link quality factors from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.); and
performing a cell selection or a reselection procedure with the relay node based on the end-to-end wireless link quality metric (Hong, Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: cell/path selection/reselection).
Regarding claim 16. Hong teaches a network node for assisting cell selection or reselection in a relay-assisted wireless network, the network node comprising processing circuitry (Hong, the Abstract), the processing circuitry being configured to cause the network node to:
provide, towards a user equipment having an end-to-end wireless link composed of a wireless access link and first wireless backhaul link between itself and a donor node of the relay-assisted wireless network, backhaul link characteristics of the first wireless backhaul link, the backhaul link characteristics assisting the user equipment to derive an end-to-end wireless link quality metric for the end-to-end wireless link when performing a cell selection or a reselection procedure (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [100]; Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: a UE is provided with broadcast information from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.).
Regarding claim 19. Hong teaches a user equipment for cell selection or reselection in a relay-assisted wireless network, the user equipment being configured to have an end-to-end wireless link composed of a wireless access link and first wireless backhaul link between itself and a donor node of the relay-assisted wireless network, the user equipment comprising processing circuitry (Hong, the Abstract), the processing circuitry being configured to cause the user equipment to:
receive, from a relay node of the relay-assisted wireless network, backhaul link characteristics of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [100], [138]-[139]: a UE is provided with broadcast information from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.);
derive an end-to-end wireless link quality metric for the end-to-end wireless link between the user equipment and the donor node from access link characteristics of the wireless access link and the received backhaul link characteristics (Hong, Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: obtaining and analyzing broadcast information relating link quality factors from IAB nodes with various factors configured for criteria of cell/path selection/reselection process which including but not limiting to QoS, cell quality, congestion levels, latency of nodes, RSRP measurements, etc.); and
perform a cell selection or a reselection procedure with the relay node based on the end-to-end wireless link quality metric (Hong, Fig. 6, pp [140]-[149], [151]-[154]: cell/path selection/reselection).
Regarding claim 2. Hong teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the backhaul link characteristics pertain to any of:
current or predicted quality of the first wireless backhaul link, performance of the first wireless backhaul link, or/and configuration of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, pp [138]-[139]).
Regarding claim 3. Hong teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the backhaul link characteristics are provided as a set of wireless backhaul related parameters (Hong, pp [138]-[139]).
Regarding claim 4. Hong teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the wireless backhaul related parameters pertain to any of:
RSRP of the first wireless backhaul link, RSRQ of the first wireless backhaul link, SNR of the first wireless backhaul link, SINR of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, pp [138]-[139]), latency indicator of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, pp [144]-[147]), capacity indicator of the first wireless backhaul link, load indicator of the first wireless backhaul link, priority indicator of the first wireless backhaul link, energy status indicator of the first wireless backhaul link (Hong, pp [120]-[122]).
Regarding claim 5. Hong teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the wireless backhaul related parameters are provided as any of:
a list of values, a mean value, a weighted average value, a harmonic mean value, a minimum value, a maximum value (Hong, pp [91]-[92], [155]).
Regarding claim 6. Hong teaches the method of claim 3, wherein the wireless backhaul related parameters are provided towards the user equipment by being broadcasted as system information or transmitted using dedicated radio resource control, RRC, signalling (Hong, pp [40], [43], [48], [50]).
Regarding claim 7. Hong teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the wireless backhaul related parameters are derived by, or provided to the network node from, the donor node of the relay-assisted wireless network (Hong, pp [7]-[8], Fig. 5, pp [99]-[100]).
Regarding claim 8. Hong teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the network node is a relay node, such as an IAB node or a repeater, of the relay-assisted wireless network (Hong, pp [7]-[8], Fig. 5, pp [99]-[100]).
Regarding claim 9. Hong teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the network node is the donor node (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [99]-[100]).
Regarding claim 11. Hong teaches the method of claim 10, wherein the access link characteristics pertain to channel measurements of the wireless access link (Hong, pp [69]-[72], [91]).
Regarding claim 12. Hong teaches the method of claim 10, wherein it is the cell reselection procedure that is performed based on the end-to-end wireless link quality metric, and the method further comprises:
performing a cell selection procedure with the relay node of the relay-assisted wireless network based on the access link characteristics (Hong, Figs. 5 and 6, pp [100], [149]-[154]).
Regarding claim 13. Hong teaches the method of claim 12, wherein the cell selection procedure identifies a set of relay nodes fulfilling an access link criterion as evaluated based on the access link characteristics, and wherein during the cell reselection procedure a first available relay node in the set of relay nodes that fulfils an end-to-end link criterion, as evaluated based on the end-to-end wireless link quality metric, is selected (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [89]-[97]; Fig. 6, pp [141]-[149]).
Regarding claim 14. Hong teaches the method of claim 10, wherein it is the cell selection procedure that is performed based on the end-to-end wireless link quality metric, and the method further comprises:
performing a cell reselection procedure with the relay node of the relay-assisted wireless network based on the access link characteristics (Hong, Figs. 5 and 6, pp [100], [149]-[154]).
Regarding claim 15. Hong teaches the method of claim 14, wherein the cell reselection procedure identifies a set of relay nodes fulfilling an access link criterion as evaluated based on the access link characteristics, and wherein during the cell selection procedure the relay node in the set of relay nodes having best end-to-end wireless link quality metric is selected (Hong, Fig. 5, pp [89]-[97]; Fig. 6, pp [141]-[149]).
Regarding claim 25. Hong teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for configuring a network node to perform the method of claim 1 (Hong, pp [175], [181]).
Regarding claim 26. Hong teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for configuring a user equipment to perform the method of claim 10 (Hong, pp [175], [181]).
Relevant references found but not used in the rejection above:
Bao et al. (US Pub. No. 2012/0002537), teaches a method performed by a base station in a network, includes detecting a malfunction associated with a backhaul link to the network; identifying one or more neighboring base stations located within a transmission range of the base station; selecting at least one of the one or more neighboring base stations based on one or more parameters, associated with the one or more neighboring base stations, in response to detecting the malfunction; receiving, by a radio frequency (RF) transceiver associated with the base station, a signal from a user equipment; and transmitting, by an RF transceiver associated with the base station, the signal to the selected at least one of the one or more neighboring base stations.
Fujishiro (US Pub. No. 2022/0264400), teaches a communication control method using a wireless relay apparatus connected to an upper apparatus via a backhaul link includes, in a case that a backhaul link of the wireless relay apparatus fails to be recovered, by the wireless relay apparatus, executing a first process for re-establishing a backhaul link of a lower wireless relay apparatus connected to the wireless relay apparatus by using a first message of a BAP layer of the wireless relay apparatus; and executing a second process for re-establishing or releasing an access link of a user equipment connected to the wireless relay apparatus by using a second message of a layer different from the BAP layer.
Luo (US Pub. No. 2020/0045563), teaches method and system relate to determining, based on a received signal strength, a set of potential backhaul nodes for providing a backhaul link in an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) network, determining, based at least in part on additional information regarding the set of potential backhaul nodes, at least one backhaul node of the set of potential backhaul nodes to which to connect over the backhaul link in the IAB network, and indicating, to an access node, the at least one backhaul node for attempting connection over the backhaul link.
Parihar et al. (US Patent No. 1,1012,141), teaches systems, methods, and nodes for selecting a donor for a relay wireless device. Candidate signal arcs of a predetermined angle for a relay wireless device that do not meet an interference criteria are determined. Signals levels are scanned for the relay wireless device for signals received from a plurality of donor access nodes, the scanning iterating over the determined candidate signal arcs that do not meet the interference criteria. Candidate donor access nodes with a received signal level at the relay wireless device that meets a signal level criteria for each candidate signal arc based on the scanning are determined. And a donor access node is selected for the relay wireless device based on the determined candidate donor access nodes.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUY C HO whose telephone number is (571)270-1108. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8AM-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, KATHY WANG-HURST can be reached at (571)270-5371. 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.
/HUY C HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
Prosecution Insights