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 .
The Office Action is responsive to the communication filed on 03/03/2025.
Claims 1-20 have been cancelled.
Claims 21-40 have been newly added.
Claims 21-40 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/27/2024, 10/09/2024, and 04/30/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 06/28/2024. These drawings are reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei et al (WO 2023011904) in view of Liu et al (US 20220345981).
Regarding claim 21, Wei discloses a method, applied to a first network node, wherein the method comprises:
sending handover request information to a second network node (page 8, ll. 24-28, a UE which is about to execute a handover would be better served by not selecting a highly mobile a drone as its relay node if there are more than one base station (TRP/gNB) which can fulfil conditions for a conditional handover (CHO) such as in the CHO configuration), wherein the handover request information comprises first identification information of a relay terminal device (page 14, ll. 22-27, the relay communications node comprises identifying, by the communications device, a plurality of communications nodes in the wireless communications network with which the communications device can attach to form a wireless communications link for transmitting data), user equipment context information of the relay terminal device (page 6, ll. 22-29, to allow a ‘remote’ communications device 324 to transmit or receive data from a wireless communications network via a ‘relay’ communications device 304, whether or not the remote communications device 324 is within communications range of an infrastructure equipment of the network. For the example shown in Figure 3, the relay UE 304 is within coverage of the gNB/TRP 1 344 and transmitting and receiving data via a wireless access interface Uu 302 within the cell 330), first identification information of a remote terminal device (page 9, ll. 30-35, Figures 3 to 7, communications devices/nodes which can act as a relay to UEs transmit relay type information, from which remote UEs can determine a relay service which can be supported), and user equipment context information of the remote terminal device (Figure 4 and page 6, ll. 39-42 – page 7, ll. 1-3, … a remote UE which can receive an indication from a relay UE, which indicates whether the relay UE is able to act as a relay UE and moreover a type of relay which the UE can provide, which allows the remote UE to determine whether it should select the relay UE or not), the remote terminal device communicatively interacts with the first network node via the relay terminal device (page 7, ll. 1-11, … a remote UE which can receive an indication from a relay UE, which indicates whether the relay UE is able to act as a relay UE and moreover a type of relay which the UE can provide, which allows the remote UE to determine whether it should select the relay UE or not. …); and
receiving handover response information from the second network node (page 9, ll. 24-27, The remote UE 610 then determines whether to perform a U2U or U2N attachment or handover via the relay UE 510 or perform an attachment or handover to the gNB/TRP 344), wherein the handover response information comprises second identification information of the relay terminal device (page 14, ll. 20-27, the indication of a relay service which can be provided by the relay communications node comprises identifying, by the communications device, a plurality of communications nodes in the wireless communications network with which the communications device can attach to form a wireless communications link for transmitting data or for receiving data via the attached communications node, … ), radio bearer configuration information that is of a first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the relay terminal device (page 10, ll. the UE may determine that the particular service is not available on a frequency that the UE is currently using for communications. In this case, the UE may select another frequency at which the particular service is available. In one example, the UE may determine that a peer-to-peer communications service using a U2U relay is available on a communications frequency other than the one which the UE is currently using, and accordingly selects to use the other frequency for the peer-to-peer service. The UE may receive information regarding whether or not particular communications services are available or not on particular frequencies from the relay communications node itself, or from infrastructure equipment which provides coverage for the UE), second identification information of the remote terminal device (page 14, ll. 20-27, the indication of a relay service which can be provided by the relay communications node comprises identifying, by the communications device, a plurality of communications nodes in the wireless communications network with which the communications device can attach to form a wireless communications link for transmitting data or for receiving data via the attached communications node, …), and radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the remote terminal device (page 10, ll. the UE may determine that the particular service is not available on a frequency that the UE is currently using for communications. In this case, the UE may select another frequency at which the particular service is available. In one example, the UE may determine that a peer-to-peer communications service using a U2U relay is available on a communications frequency other than the one which the UE is currently using, and accordingly selects to use the other frequency for the peer-to-peer service. The UE may receive information regarding whether or not particular communications services are available or not on particular frequencies from the relay communications node itself, or from infrastructure equipment which provides coverage for the UE), second identification information of the remote terminal device page 14, ll. 20-27, the indication of a relay service which can be provided by the relay communications node comprises identifying, by the communications device, a plurality of communications nodes in the wireless communications network with which the communications device can attach to form a wireless communications link for transmitting data or for receiving data via the attached communications node, …).
Wei does not expressly disclose and the handover request information is used by the relay terminal device to be handed over from the first network node to a cell of the second network node.
However, Liu, discloses feature setting up a first radio connection with a first network node; setting up a second radio connection with a second network node; and notifying the first network node and the second network node that the relay terminal device has network node capability to relay data between the first network node and the second network node).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wei with Liu’s handover request information is used by the relay terminal device to be handed over from the first network node to a cell of the second network node in order to transfer context, secure routing, and content services when moving a connection from a first node to a second node.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wei with Liu in order securely transfer contents when relaying context information.
Regarding claim 22, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the first identification information of the remote terminal device comprises:
a cell radio network temporary identifier (CRNTI) that is of the remote terminal device and that is allocated by the first network node to the remote terminal device, a layer-2 identifier of the remote terminal device, or a temporary identifier that is of the remote terminal device and that is allocated by the first network node to the remote terminal device (page 9,ll. 30-35, information: a U2U relay indication, a U2N relay indication, a mobile relay and/or its speed (level of speed) indication, a drone relay indication, a temporary relay indication, an emergency relay indication).
Regarding claim 23, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein: the second identification information of the remote terminal device comprises the first identification information of the remote terminal device (page 9,ll. 30-35, As indicated by the examples embodiments of Figures 3 to 7, communications devices/nodes which can act as a relay to UEs transmit relay type information, from which remote UEs can determine a relay service, … U2U relay indication, a U2N relay indication, … a temporary relay indication); or the second identification information of the remote terminal device comprises: a cell radio network temporary identifier (CRLNTI) that is of the remote terminal device and that is allocated by the second network node to the remote terminal device, a layer-2 identifier of the remote terminal device, or a temporary identifier that is of the remote terminal device and that is allocated by the second network node to the remote terminal device .
Regarding claim 24, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the handover response information comprises:
first identification information of the first cell of the second network node, first configuration information (Figure 4 and page 6, ll. 39-42 – page 7, ll. 1-3, … a remote UE which can receive an indication from a relay UE, which indicates whether the relay UE is able to act as a relay UE and moreover a type of relay which the UE can provide, which allows the remote UE to determine whether it should select the relay UE), and second configuration information, wherein the first configuration information comprises the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the relay terminal device, and the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the relay terminal device comprises: a radio bearer configuration of the relay terminal device in the first cell of the second network node, and radio link control (RLC) bearer configuration information of a PC5 interface and a Uu interface for the relay terminal device to provide a relay service for the remote terminal device, wherein the PC5 interface is a communication interface between the relay terminal device and the remote terminal device (page 6, ll. 26-32, the example shown in Figure 3, the relay UE 304 is remote terminal device (page 6, ll. 26-32, the example shown in Figure 3, the relay UE 304 is within coverage of the gNB/TRP 1 344 and transmitting and receiving data via a wireless access interface Uu 302 within the cell 330. The remote UE 324 is outside the coverage provided by the gNB/TRP 1 344 within the cell 330 and transmits to and receives data from the relay UE 304 via a PC-5 side link wireless access interface 208 to the gNB / TRP 1 344 via the UE 304 which acts as a relay UE.), and the Uu interface is a communication interface between the relay terminal device and the second network node(page 6, ll. 33-38, Figure 3, the relay UE 454 transmits and receives data via a Uu wireless access interface 302 to and from the gNB/TRP 344 within the coverage area provided by the cell 330), and wherein the second configuration information comprises the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the remote terminal device (page 12, ll. 39-44-page 13, ll. 1-6, system information signaling, or in association with radio resource control setup signaling, ), and the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the remote terminal device comprises:
a radio bearer configuration of the remote terminal device in the first cell of the second network node and the RLC bearer configuration information of the PC5 interface (page 7, ll. 29-35, For layer-2 UE-to-network relay, the architecture of end-to-end PDCP and hop-by-hop RLC, e.g., as recommended in TR 36.746, is taken as starting point. Accordingly, there is a requirement to support both U2N and U2U relay operation with different types of relays that will co-exist in the network e.g. U2N UE relay, U2U UE relay, mobile relay, IAB etc. The type of relay is information which can be used to improve relay selection/re-selection and mobility by UEs depending on their requirements).
Regarding claim 25, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:
sending third configuration information to the relay terminal device (Figure 4 and page 6, ll. 39-42 – page 7, ll. 1-3, … a remote UE which can receive an indication from a relay UE, which indicates whether the relay UE is able to act as a relay UE and moreover a type of relay which the UE can provide, which allows the remote UE to determine whether it should select the relay UE), wherein the third configuration information comprises: the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the relay terminal device ((page 10, ll. the UE may determine that the particular service is not available on a frequency that the UE is currently using for communications. In this case, the UE may select another frequency at which the particular service is available. In one example, the UE may determine that a peer-to-peer communications service using a U2U relay is available on a communications frequency other than the one which the UE is currently using, and accordingly selects to use the other frequency for the peer-to-peer service. The UE may receive information regarding whether or not particular communications services are available or not on particular frequencies from the relay communications node itself, or from infrastructure equipment which provides coverage for the UE)), and second identification information of the first cell of the second network node (page 14, ll. 20-27, the indication of a relay service which can be provided by the relay communications node comprises identifying, by the communications device, a plurality of communications nodes in the wireless communications network with which the communications device can attach to form a wireless communications link for transmitting data or for receiving data via the attached communications node, …); and the first cell of the second network node is a candidate target cell to which the relay terminal device is to be handed over (page 10, ll. 1-4, For CHO configuration, if the candidate destination node is a relay node, an infrastructure equipment (base station) will add relay type information in the CHO configuration and it will be up to the remote UE to decide whether it wants to handover to this type of relay).
Regarding claim 26, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the method further comprises:
sending fourth configuration information to the remote terminal device, wherein the fourth configuration information comprises:
the radio bearer configuration information that is of the first cell of the second network node and that is configured for the remote terminal device (page 7, ll. 29-35, For layer-2 UE-to-network relay, the architecture of end-to-end PDCP and hop-by-hop RLC, e.g., as recommended in TR 36.746, is taken as starting point. Accordingly, there is a requirement to support both U2N and U2U relay operation with different types of relays that will co-exist in the network e.g. U2N UE relay, U2U UE relay, mobile relay, IAB etc. The type of relay is information which can be used to improve relay selection/re-selection and mobility by UEs depending on their requirements), and the second identification information of the first cell of the second network node, and wherein the first cell of the second network node is a candidate target cell to which the relay terminal device is to be handed over (page 10, ll. 1-4, For CHO configuration, if the candidate destination node is a relay node, an infrastructure equipment (base station) will add relay type information in the CHO configuration and it will be up to the remote UE to decide whether it wants to handover to this type of relay).
Regarding claim 27, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 25, wherein the second identification information of the first cell of the second network node comprises an identifier allocated by the first network node to the first cell of the second network node; or the second identification information of the first cell of the second network node comprises a cell global identifier (CGI), and the CGI is sent by the second network node to the first network node via the handover response information (page 9, ll. 39-42, remote UE 464 at the cell boundary can transmit and receive data via a Uu wireless access interface formed by the gNB/TRP 344 or transmit or receive data to the network via a PC-5 wireless access interface 208 formed by the relay UE 454 as for the UEs in the group 400).
Regarding claim 28, in the obvious combination, Wei discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the first network node and the second network node are a same network node (page 11, ll. 12-19, Figure 8 and the receiver 292b and the controller 290b may operate in the same way as the corresponding transmitter 296a, receiver 292a and controller 290a of the relay UE 304).
Claim 29 contains subject matter similar to claim 21, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale. (Wei, “Communication device, …” Title).
Claim 30 contains subject matter similar to claim 22, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 31 contains subject matter similar to claim 23, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 32 contains subject matter similar to claim 24, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 33 contains subject matter similar to claim 25, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 34 contains subject matter similar to claim 26, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 35 contains subject matter similar to claim 27, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 36 contains subject matter similar to claim 28, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 37 contains subject matter similar to claim 21, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale. (Wei, Figure 8, “The controllers 334, 290a, 290b, configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium” page 11, ll. 33-38).
Claim 38 contains subject matter similar to claim 27, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 39 contains subject matter similar to claim 27, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Claim 40 contains subject matter similar to claim 24, and thus, is rejected under similar rationale.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JULIO R PEREZ whose telephone number is (571)272-7846. The examiner can normally be reached 10Am - 6PM EST M-F.
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/JULIO R PEREZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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