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 .
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Chen et al (hereinafter “Chen”), US Pub. 2023/0397100 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 3, Chen discloses methods and systems for remote UE mobility management. The systems comprise at least a terminal (fig. 1-5, 7, 9-10, remote UE; and fig. 17B, UE 102), wherein the terminal is a first terminal comprising a memory and a processor, (fig. 17B, UE comprises memory 130, and processor 118), wherein the memory is configured to store a program (memory 130 is configured to store a program) and the processor is configured to invoke the program in the memory to cause the first terminal to perform: receiving first information (fig. 7, remote UE 701 receives system information 712 from a relay UE 702), wherein the first information is used to indicate first link information between a second communications device and a third terminal (fig. 6-7: the relay UE forwards the system information to the remote UE, wherein the system information indicates a link between relay UE 702 and gNb of cell 1 704).
Regarding claims 2, 4 and 13, Chen discloses wherein the first link information is determined by the second communications device (fig. 6, step 602: the remote UE may receive system information from the relay UE. The system information may comprise cell reselection priorities for different NR frequencies for the remote UE).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Chen discloses wherein the first link information is obtained by measuring a sidelink discovery reference signal received power (SD-RSRP) corresponding to a discovery message or a discovery response message (fig. 6, [0258]-[0260]: the remote UE may periodically measure the sidelink quality between it and the relay UE, e.g., RSRP_relay, RSRQ_relay. To assist the remote UE, the relay UE may regularly make sidelink transmissions to allow the remote UE to assess the sidelink quality; fig. 8, [0263]-[0264] and [0273]).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Chen discloses wherein the processor is configured to invoke the program in the memory (as shown in claim 1) to cause the first terminal to further perform: determining, based on the first link information, whether to select the second communications device as a relay terminal (fig. 11, step 1114, p. [0282]: The remote UE 1101 may also make the paging path (re)selection decision based on the traffic load of the relay UE 1102; Step 1115, p. [0283]: remote UE 1101 may send a paging path selection request to the relay UE 1102).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Chen discloses wherein the selection of the relay terminal is further determined based on first configuration information ([0077], [0079], [0133], [0166]: a configured threshold quality of Proximity Services (ProSe) UE-to-Network link; [0202], [0207]-[0209], [0223]-[0226], [0238], [0240]: the UE may select the first sidelink Relay UE with received signal strength above a threshold. The signal strength may be in terms of PSSCH-RSRP, PSCCH-RSRP, PSBCH-RSRP, SD-RSRP, Sidelink RSSI, or any similar sidelink measurements.)
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Chen discloses wherein the first link information is used to indicate a quality of a first link between the second communications device and the third terminal ([0204]-[0206] and [0210]: A Relay UE may be considered as suitable if: The Relay UE is a UE-to-NW Relay; The Relay UE is a UE-to-UE relay that has a communication path to a gNB; The Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold; [0224] The Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds a configured threshold) and the first configuration information comprises one or more of following: a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold, wherein the first threshold is a threshold value of the quality of the first link ([0210], [0224]: The Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold; Uu link quality refers to the quality of the link between the relay UE and the serving cell's gNB (fig. 3-5, p. [0122])), the second threshold is a threshold value of a quality of a second link between the second communications device and the first terminal ([0133], [0166]: The PC5 link quality exceeds a configured threshold; [0209], [0240], [0266]: The PC5 link quality exceeds configured threshold; PC5 link quality refers to the quality of the link between the UE and the Relay UE (fig. 3-5, p. [0122])), and the third threshold is a threshold value obtained by performing a first calculation on the quality of the first link and the quality of the second link ([0209]-[0210] The PC5 link quality exceeds configured threshold and the Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Chen discloses wherein the second communications device is able to be a relay terminal when one or more of following conditions are met: in a case that the first configuration information comprises the first threshold, the quality of the first link is greater than or equal to the first threshold ([0210], [0224]: The Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold, Uu link quality refers to the quality of the link between the relay UE and the serving cell's gNB (fig. 3-5, p. [0122])); in a case that the first configuration information comprises the second threshold, the quality of the second link is greater than or equal to the second threshold ([0133], [0166], [0209], [0240], [0266]: The PC5 link quality exceeds configured threshold, wherein the PC5 link quality refers to the quality of the link between the UE and the Relay UE (fig. 3-5, p. [0122])); or in a case that the first configuration information comprises the third threshold, a value obtained by performing the first calculation on the quality of the first link and the quality of the second link is greater than or equal to the third threshold ([0142], [0146], [0171], [0209]-[0210]: The PC5 link quality exceeds configured threshold and the Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold).
Regarding claims 10 and 19, Chen discloses wherein the first information comprises one or more of following: an identity of the third terminal; a parameter of a first link between the second communications device and the third terminal; or a type of the parameter of the first link ([0209]-[0210], [0224]: The Uu link quality of the relay UE exceeds configured threshold, wherein the link quality may be in terms of PSSCH-RSRP, PSCCH-RSRP, PSBCH-RSRP, SD-RSRP, Sidelink RSSI, or any similar sidelink measurements).
Regarding claims 11 and 20, Chen discloses wherein the first information is carried in one or more of following messages: a discovery message, a discovery response message, a PC5 radio resource control (PC5-RRC) message ([0280]-[0281] and [0288]-[0289]: The remote UE 1101 may select a relay UE 1102 to establish PC5-RRC connection and establish sidelink communication via a PC5-RRC connection with the selected relay UE 1102; fig. 14, steps 1416 and 1420), a sidelink medium access control-control element (SL MAC CE) (see protocol stack in fig. 1 and 2: sidelink MAC), or sidelink control information (SCI) ([0213], [0230], [0247]: Cell selection by leveraging stored information of frequencies and optionally also information on cell parameters from previously received measurement control information elements or from previously detected cells).
Regarding claim 12, Chen discloses a second communications device (fig. 7, relay UE 702 and fig. 17B, UE 102) comprising a memory and a processor (fig. 17B, UE comprises memory 130, and processor 118), wherein the memory is configured to store a program (memory 130 is configured to store a program), and the processor is configured to invoke the program in the memory to cause the second communications device to perform: sending first information to a first terminal (fig. 7, remote UE 701 receives system information 712 from a relay UE 702), wherein the first information is used to indicate first link information between the second communications device and a third terminal (fig. 6-7: the relay UE forwards the system information to the remote UE, wherein the system information indicates a link between relay UE 702 and gNb of cell 1 704).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al, US 2025/0176043 A1, Methods, devices and computer storage media of communication for sidelink relay.
Back et al, US 2025/0151157 A1, Method and apparatus of a transmitting user equipment (TX UE) related to a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) capability of a base station (BS) in SL DRX.
Paladugu et al, US 2025/0150933 A1, Techniques and apparatuses for groupcast or broadcast user equipment to user equipment relaying.
Cheng et al, US 2024/0388987 A1, Handover procedure for each of one or more candidate handover groups, the one or more candidate handover groups comprising a candidate cell group and a candidate relay group.
Teyeb et al, US 2024/0365182 A1, Method for relay measurements.
Cheng et al, US 2024/0049009 A1, Relay (re)selection, relay/remote UE authorization, QoS provisioning, service continuity, and security mechanisms with respect to the relay node architecture (e.g., layer 2 (L2) or layer 3 (L3) of the protocol stack).
Hoang et al, US 2023/0300713 A1, A method that may be implemented in a first WTRU and may include determining first measurements based on first sidelink transmissions received from a second WTRU; receiving, from the second WTRU, second measurements associated with a path between the first WTRU and a third WTRU.
Chen et al, US 2023/0156854 A1, Mechanisms for relay selection and reselection. Relay selection generally refers the procedure whereby a remote UE has not connected to any relay node, discovers relay nodes whose sidelink discovery reference signal receive power (SD-RSRP) is above a threshold level (possibly by some amount) and, from among them, selects the relay node with best SD-RSRP.
Back et al, US 2022/0330115 A1, Method of a sidelink related operation of a remote User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method including performing measurement on one or more UEs by the remote UE, selecting a relay UE by the remote UE based on a result of the measurement, and receiving a notification message from the relay UE, wherein the notification message may include information informing that the relay UE has failed in Uu RRC connection establishment.
Lee et al, US 2018/0084478 A1, A method and apparatus for selecting a relay UE in a wireless communication system.
Van Phan et al, WO 2022/089849 A1, Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided to facilitate relay discovery, selection, and/or reselection for U2N relaying over SL utilizing a service-continuity indication provided via one or more solicitation messages from a remote UE to at least one relay UE.
Hoang et al, WO 2022/031921 A1, Systems, methods, and instrumentalities are described herein for sidelink discovery.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI D HOANG whose telephone number is (571) 272-3184. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30 am-18:30pm.
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THAI HOANG D.
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/THAI DINH HOANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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