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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 140-146 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Invention II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 07/23/2026.
Status of Claims
Claims 127-146 are pending in the current application. Claims 140-146 are withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/21/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
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 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.
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.
Claims 127-128 and 130-133 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pao et al. (US 2019/0297514 A1), hereinafter referred to as Pao, in view of Lee et al. (US 2016/0057802 A1), hereinafter referred to as Lee.
Regarding claim 127, Pao teaches an apparatus (Pao – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0026], note communication device 20 may be a communication device or the network shown in Fig. 1) comprising:
at least one processor (Pao – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0026], note communication device 20 may include at least one processing circuit 200 such as a microprocessor or Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor (Pao – Fig. 2; Paragraph [0026], note at least one storage device 210 may be any data storage device that may store program codes 214, accessed and executed by the at least one processing circuit 200), cause the apparatus at least to:
transmit a first signal indicating that a condition has been satisfied (Pao – Paragraph [0040], note the physical layer (of the communication device) may send a signaling or a flag to a higher layer (e.g., medium access control (MAC) layer or RRC layer) upon a RLF declaration (when the case that the number of the at least one successive sync indication (e.g., out-of-sync indication, beam failure indication) is equal to or greater than the threshold value happens or when the case that the number of the at least one successive sync indication (e.g., in-sync indication) is smaller than the threshold value happens (e.g., radio link failure or beam failure), see Paragraph [0060])); and
determine whether a radio link failure with a network entity exists based on whether a second signal is received a specified number of times from a relay device (Pao – Paragraph [0057], note the communication device starts a timer (e.g., related to the RLM), when the number of the at least one successive sync indication is equal to or greater than the threshold value; Paragraph [0079], note the communication device starts a first timer (e.g., T310) for a radio problem recovery, the communication device starts (or restarts) a second timer (e.g., a new timer) for the radio problem recovery; Paragraph [0082], note the communication device determines that the radio link failure occurs according to the at least one of the expiry of the first timer and the expiry of the second timer, if a number of at least one successive sync indication (e.g., in-sync indication that is received) is smaller than a threshold value).
Pao does not teach transmitting a first signal to a relay device indicating that a condition has been satisfied.
In an analogous art, Lee teaches transmitting a first signal to a relay device indicating that a condition has been satisfied (Lee – Paragraph [0072], note when detecting the RLF, the UE may store, in a VarRLF-Report, RLF-related information; Paragraph [0073], note the UE transmits, to the BS (base station, which may be a relay device), the message having the rlf-InfoAvailable set to true when the UE having the above-described RLF-related information subsequently performs a RRC connection re-establishment/RRC connection re-configuration/RRC connection establishment procedure; Paragraph [0139], note when out-of-synchronization indications, more than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, are delivered from a physical layer, an RRC layer of the UE declares an RLF).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Lee into Pao in order to detect and report RLF based on out-of-synchronization indications to other devices in the network in environments where a user equipment communicates with multiple cells provided by multiple base stations (Lee – Paragraph [0007]).
Regarding claim 128, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein the condition is set by radio resource control and the condition is satisfied by the apparatus receiving consecutive out of synchronization indications with the network entity (Pao – Paragraph [0057], note successive sync indication (which may be out-of-sync indication, see Paragraph [0060]) is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the threshold value is configured by a higher layer message, is configured by a RRC message).
Regarding claim 130, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to:
monitor for the second signal from the relay device in response to the first signal (Pao – Paragraph [0040], note the physical layer may send a signaling or a flag to a higher layer (e.g., medium access control (MAC) layer or RRC layer) upon a RLF declaration or a beam (recovery) failure; Paragraph [0082], note the communication device determines that the radio link failure occurs according to the at least one of the expiry of the first timer and the expiry of the second timer (occurring during radio problem recovery, see Paragraph [0079]), if a number of at least one successive sync indication (e.g., in-sync indication) is smaller than a threshold value).
Regarding claim 131, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein at least one of:
the second signal is a reference signal or a data transmission from the relay device, or the second signal is monitored during a time period after the first signal is transmitted (Pao – Paragraph [0037], note an out-of-sync indication after a beam recovery indication may be associated with a reference signal (e.g., a beam), and successive indications may be calculated according to one reference signal or multiple reference signals; Paragraph [0082], note the communication device determines that the radio link failure occurs according to the at least one of the expiry of the first timer and the expiry of the second timer, if a number of at least one successive sync indication (e.g., in-sync indication) is smaller than a threshold value).
Regarding claim 132, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein the radio link failure is determined based on the second signal not being received for the specified number of times within the time period (Pao – Paragraph [0082], note the communication device determines that the radio link failure occurs according to the at least one of the expiry of the first timer and the expiry of the second timer, if a number of at least one successive sync indication (e.g., in-sync indication) is smaller than a threshold value).
Regarding claim 133, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein there is no determination of the radio link failure when the second signal is received for the specified number of times within the time period (Pao – Paragraph [0040], note for a case to stop the timer T310, the physical layer may send a set of successive in-sync indications upon the BWP adaptation).
Claims 129 and 139 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pao in view of Lee as applied to claim 127 above, and further in view of Sun et al. (US 2022/0116876 A1), hereinafter referred to as Sun.
Regarding claim 129, the combination of Pao and Lee does not teach wherein the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to: determine the relay device is in an active period based on configuration information related to a wake-up signal, wherein the configuration information is received from the network entity, and wherein the first signal is transmitted to the relay device while the relay device is determined to be in the active period.
In an analogous art, Sun teaches wherein the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to:
determine the relay device is in an active period based on configuration information related to a wake-up signal (Sun – Paragraph [0060], note receive (by a terminal device) transmission configuration indicator TCI information, where the TCI information is used to indicate M TCI states of a wake-up signal WUS),
wherein the configuration information is received from the network entity (Sun – Paragraph [0063], note a network device has configured transmission configuration indicator TCI information used to indicate at least one TCI state of a wake-up signal WUS), and
wherein the first signal is transmitted to the relay device while the relay device is determined to be in the active period (Sun – Paragraph [0179], note when the signal quality monitoring result indicates that link quality is continuously lower than a particular specified threshold, the physical layer of the terminal device reports an out-of-synchronization OOS indication to the RRC layer, and when the RRC layer is triggered to start the first timer (namely, T310 timer), based on this, the terminal device may be directly woken up to enter the On duration of the DRX).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Sun into the combination of Pao and Lee in order to allow a terminal device to perform radio link failure detection during an inactive time, improving timeliness of monitoring radio link failure and reducing power consumption (Sun – Paragraphs [0063]-[0064]).
Regarding claim 139, the combination of Pao and Lee, specifically Pao teaches wherein the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to transmit a response comprising an acknowledgment message to the relay device confirming reception of the second signal (Pao – Paragraph [0038], note a physical layer may send an indication (e.g., the BWP adaptation) to a RRC layer for handling of an in-sync indication or an out-of-sync indication in a RLF detection algorithm, which may be preconfigured by a network (e.g., gNB), according to, e.g., a coherence time, a coherence bandwidth, a mobility speed, a service type, etc.).
The combination of Pao and Lee does not teach wherein at least one of: the second signal comprises a device-to-device signal to wake-up the apparatus and inform the apparatus of scheduled data from the network entity, or the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to transmit a query signal requesting connectivity support for the relay device during an active period of the relay device.
In an analogous art, Sun teaches wherein at least one of:
the second signal comprises a device-to-device signal to wake-up the apparatus and inform the apparatus of scheduled data from the network entity (Sun – Paragraph [0087], note in the case that the WUS decoding result indicates to wake up the terminal device, the terminal device is immediately woken up to enter the On duration of the DRX for data receiving), or
the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to transmit a query signal requesting connectivity support for the relay device during an active period of the relay device (Sun – Paragraph [0111], note the radio link failure detection operation can be performed, and further, after a radio link failure is detected, for example after the terminal device finds that there are not sufficient in-synchronization (IS) indications for reporting before the first timer expires, the radio link re-establishment operation can be performed (during the On duration of DRX, see Paragraph [0082])).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Sun into the combination of Pao and Lee for the same reason as claim 129 above.
Claims 134-136 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pao in view of Lee as applied to claim 127 above, and further in view of Shin et al. (US 2020/0236730 A1), hereinafter referred to as Shin.
Regarding claim 134, the combination of Pao and Lee does not teach wherein a PC5 connection is established with the relay device before the condition is satisfied.
In an analogous art, Shin teaches wherein a PC5 connection is established with the relay device before the condition is satisfied (Shin – Paragraph [0040], note a sidelink refers to a signal transmission or reception path between terminals, which may be interchangeably used with a PC5 interface; Paragraph [0086], note the set of slots for measuring a communication link quality for RLM (radio link monitoring) may be configured by the Uu-RRC or a PC5-RRC).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Shin into the combination of Pao and Lee in order to achieve more accurate RLM measurement between devices in environments with interference (Shin – Paragraph [0086]).
Regarding claim 135, the combination of Pao and Lee does not teach wherein transmission or reception with the relay device is suspended when the PC5 connection is established with the relay device.
In an analogous art, Shin teaches wherein transmission or reception with the relay device is suspended when the PC5 connection is established with the relay device (Shin – Paragraph [0098], note the terminal corresponding to the transmission end may request a higher layer to transmit a keep alive message, before suspending transmission, the keep alive message may be transmitted to a terminal corresponding to a reception end via a PC5 interface).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Shin into the combination of Pao and Lee for the same reason as claim 134 above.
Regarding claim 136, the combination of Pao and Lee does not teach wherein the suspension of the transmission to the relay device is terminated, when the second signal is received for the specified number of times within the time period.
In an analogous art, Shin teaches wherein the suspension of the transmission to the relay device is terminated, when the second signal is received for the specified number of times within the time period (Shin – Paragraph [0158], note the terminal corresponding to the transmission end may recognize an “out-of-sync” state or an “in-sync” state according to the above-described method, and the terminal may perform an RLF-related operation based on the result, if “in-sync” is successfully indicated by the lower layer, an RLM-related timer may be suspended).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Shin into the combination of Pao and Lee for the same reason as claim 134 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 137-138 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Applicant’s dependent claim recites wherein the at least one memory and the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus at least to: start one of a first timer or a second timer such that the time period ends with the expiration of the started one timer of the first timer or the second timer, wherein the first timer is a legacy timer and the second timer is an extended timer, and wherein the first timer is started if there is no wake-up time for the relay device before an expiration of the second timer and the second timer is started if there is wake-up time for the relay device before the expiration of the second timer, which is neither taught nor suggested by the prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nigam et al. (US 2015/0045035 A1) discloses detecting RLF through RLM, and generating out-of-sync indications.
Sivanesan et al. (US 2015/0078335 A1) discloses reporting an out-of-sync condition indication when CQI goes below a threshold, and starting a RLF timer when N310 times consequent out-of-sync condition indications are received.
Venugopal et al. (US 2020/0228184 A1) discloses starting RLF timers based on receiving consecutive in-sync/out-of-sync indications.
Hwang et al. (US 2021/0266811 A1) discloses RLM failure when an RLF timer expires and a predetermined number of consecutive out-of-sync indications are generated and transmitted to a RRC layer.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAILOR C HSU whose telephone number is (571)272-1729. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri. 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/BAILOR C HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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