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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/23/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being 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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1-5, 7, 9, 11-15, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Hoang et al. (US 2025/0234272 A1), hereinafter Hoang, in view of 3GPP TS 23.304 V17.6.0 hereinafter TS 23.304.
Regarding Claim 1
Hoang teaches a method for UE-to-Network Relay (U2N Relay) discovery ([0186], a WTRU-to-WTRU relay monitors discovery messages from a child/parent node, such as a WTRU-to-Network relay, and transmits a discovery message to offer relay service to remote WTRUs).
a second relay UE receives a first U2N Relay discovery message from a first relay UE ([0201], “the WTRU receives a discovery message from an WTRU-to-Network relay” and determines whether to transmit a discovery message “to forward the discovery information from the WTRU-to-Network relay” in other words the receiving WTRU corresponds to the second relay UE, and the WTRU-to-Network relay corresponds to the first relay UE).
the second relay UE transmits a second U2N Relay discovery message to a remote UE ([0186], the WTRU-to-WTRU relay “transmit[s] a discovery message” and “conveys the child/parent node information to the remote WTRUs”; also paragraph [0219], the WTRU transmits a discovery message to offer relay service to a remote WTRU).
Hoang does not explicitly teach wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info Identity (ID) of the first relay UE, a Layer-2 ID of a third relay UE, and an ID of a serving cell of the third relay UE; and wherein the second U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info ID of the second relay UE, the Layer-2 ID, and the ID of the serving cell.
TS 23.304 teaches wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info Identity (ID) of the first relay UE, a Layer-2 ID of a third relay UE, and an ID of a serving cell of the third relay UE; and wherein the second U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info ID of the second relay UE, the Layer-2 ID, and the ID of the serving cell (section 5.8.2.1, page 53, “Source and Destination Layer-2 IDs”; section 5.8.3.1, pages 54–55, “Announcer Info” comprising the announcing user’s “User Info ID”; section 5.8.3.3, page 55, “NCGI” identifying the relay’s serving cell. In Hoang’s direct-parent embodiment, the first and third relay UEs correspond to the same upstream relay).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hoang’s relay-discovery messages to include TS 23.304’s standardized identifier fields so that the receiving UE can identify the announcing relay and its serving cell (TS 23.304, sections 5.8.3.1 and 5.8.3.3, pages 54–55).
Regarding Claim 2: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hoang further teaches wherein the third relay UE is same as the first relay UE ([0201], the WTRU receives a discovery message from a WTRU-to-Network relay and forwards that relay’s discovery information; [0219], the forwarded discovery message includes information about the same WTRU-to-Network relay).
Regarding Claim 3: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hoang further teaches wherein the third relay UE is different from the first relay UE ([0200], a WTRU receives a discovery message from a parent node and forwards the parent-node discovery information; paragraphs [0223]-[0224], an intermediate WTRU-to-WTRU relay’s message carries a path containing the separately identified upstream “WTRU-to-Network ID and cell ID”; see also Figure 2. The immediate WTRU-to-WTRU parent transmitting the first message corresponds to the first relay UE, while the separately identified upstream WTRU-to-Network relay corresponds to the different third relay UE).
Regarding Claim 4: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hoang further teaches wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message includes a first accumulated number of hops (paragraph [0167], each discovery message may include “hop count to gNB”; paragraph [0244], WTRU1 receives from WTRU2 a discovery message containing “a number of hops to a base station (BS) from the second WTRU”).
Regarding Claim 5: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 4.
Hoang further teaches wherein the second U2N Relay discovery message includes a second accumulated number of hops ([0226], the discovery message may include “the number of hops to reach the gNB”; [0244], WTRU1 transmits a discovery message including “a number of hops to the BS from the first WTRU”).
Regarding Claim 7: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hong does not explicitly teach wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info ID of the remote UE and/or a Relay Service Code (RSC).
TS 23.304 further teaches wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message includes a User Info ID of the remote UE and/or a Relay Service Code (RSC) (section 5.8.3.1, page 54, “Announcer Info and Relay Service Code are contained in the message” and “Relay Service Code: parameter identifying a connectivity service the 5G ProSe UE-to-Network Relay provides to a 5G ProSe Remote UE”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, to include TS 23.304’s RSC in Hong’s discovery message to identify the connectivity service provided by the relay (TS 23.304, section 5.8.3.1, page 54).
Regarding Claim 9: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hoang further teaches wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message or the second U2N Relay discovery message is a U2N Relay Discovery Announcement message ([0137], “In discovery model A, a U2N relay sends discovery announcement messages to remote UEs”; [0180], an intermediate relay monitors “a discovery announcement message from a parent node”).
Claims 11-15, 17 and 19, directed to a second relay UE, are rejected under the same reasoning as corresponding method Claims 1-5, 7, and 9, respectively.
Claims 6 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Hoang in view of TS 23.304, and further in view of Vanderveen et al. (US 2015/0341794 A1), hereinafter Vanderveen.
Regarding Claim 6: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 5.
Hoang and TS 23.304 do not explicitly teach wherein the second accumulated number of hops is equal to the first accumulated number of hops plus 1.
Vanderveen teaches wherein the second accumulated number of hops is equal to the first accumulated number of hops plus 1 ([0160], “for every ‘hop’ the discovery frame makes, the relay UE (R-UE) may increment the current hop count by 1”; [0165], device B may receive device A’s discovery frame, increment “the current hop count” by 1, and then transmit the discovery frame with the adjusted relay-specific fields).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hoang’s relay-discovery procedure to increment the received hop count by one, as taught by Vanderveen, so that the transmitted hop count reflects the added relay hop (Vanderveen [0160] and [0165]).
Claim 16, directed to a second relay UE, is rejected under the same reasoning as corresponding method Claim 6.
Claims 8, 10, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Hoang in view of TS 23.304, and further in view of Guo et al. (US 2023/0300638 A1), hereinafter Guo.
Regarding Claim 8: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 7.
Hoang and TS 23.304 do not explicitly teach wherein the second U2N Relay discovery message includes the User Info ID of the remote UE and/or the RSC.
Guo teaches wherein the second U2N Relay discovery message includes the User Info ID of the remote UE and/or the RSC ([0175], the first discovery request includes “an RSC of the relay service”; [0177], the relay UE may directly forward the first discovery request so that “the second discovery request and the first discovery request have the same content”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hoang’s relay-discovery procedure to retain the RSC in the second discovery message, as taught by Guo, so that the forwarded message identifies the requested relay service (Guo, paragraphs [0175] and [0177]).
Regarding Claim 10: Hoang and TS 23.304 teach the method of Claim 1.
Hoang and TS 23.304 do not explicitly teach wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message or the second U2N Relay discovery message is a U2N Relay Discovery Response message.
Guo teaches wherein the first U2N Relay discovery message or the second U2N Relay discovery message is a U2N Relay Discovery Response message (by teaching that an intermediate relay receives a second discovery response and sends a first discovery response toward the initiating UE ([0181], “the relay UE sends a first discovery response to the first UE”; [0182], “The relay UE receives the second discovery response” and returns the information to the first UE in the first discovery response).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Hoang’s multihop discovery procedure to forward U2N Relay Discovery Response messages, as taught by Guo, to facilitate discovery proximate discovery and relaying operations (Guo [0005]).
Claims 18 and 20, directed to a second relay UE, are rejected under the same reasoning as corresponding method Claims 8 and 10, respectively.
Conclusion
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/H.A.C./Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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