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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in response to application filed on 7/30/2024.
Claims 27-32 and 47 have been examined and are pending with this action.
Claims 27-32 and 47 have been elected based on the election filed on 7/20/2026.
Priority
Examiner acknowledges that the Applicant claims a priority benefit of PCT/EP2023/052327 has PRO 63/304,925 filed on 1/31/2022.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 7/30/2024 and these drawings are accepted.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/30/2024 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
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 of this title, 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 should not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 27-32 & 47 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL (Running CR for Multi-USim devices R2-2201973) in view of Fuji (US 20170041773 A1).
As per claim 27, NPL discloses a method of operating a relay user equipment, UE, that is capable of connecting to multiple public land mobile networks, PLMNs, using multiple universal subscriber identity modules, MUSIMs (NPL: “UE notification on Network Switching", "For MUSIM operation, a MUSIM device in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A may have to switch from Network A to Network B" & section 7.9, "UE Assistance Information", "When configured to do so, the UE can signal the network through UEAssistancelnformation: -If it prefers to leave RRC_CONNECTED state for MUSIM operation; - If it wants to include assistance information for setup or release of gaps for MUSIM operation", wherein the UE of NPL is a MUSIM device capable of connecting to Network A and to Network B and in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A and thus a UE capable of connecting to multiple PLMNs which has established a connection to a first PLMN”) the method comprising:
establishing a connection to a first PLMN (NPL: “section 7.9, "UE Assistance Information", "When configured to do so, the UE can signal the network through UEAssistancelnformation: -If it prefers to leave RRC_CONNECTED state for MUSIM operation; - If it wants to include assistance information for setup or release of gaps for MUSIM operation", wherein the UE of NPL is a MUSIM device capable of connecting to Network A and to Network B and in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A and thus a UE capable of connecting to multiple PLMNs which has established a connection to a first PLMN”);
establishing a sidelink connection to a remote UE (NPL: “section 7.9, For sidelink, the UE can report SL traffic pattern(s) to NG-RAN, for periodic traffic", wherein a SL traffic pattern implies that a SL connection to a second UE has been established)”) ;
generating a gap preference for configuring communication gaps with the first PLMN, wherein the gap preference is a MUSIM gap preference and the gap preference (NPL: “section X.3, "When
configured to do so, a MUSIM device can signal the network A a preference to be kept in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A while temporarily switching to network B. This is indicated by scheduling gaps preference. This preference can include information for setup or release of gap(s). The network A can configure at most 3 gap patterns for MUSIM purpose: two periodic gaps and a single aperiodic gap"; & Annex, RAN2#115-e, "Gap configuration assistance information 16 UE is allowed to include assistance information for setup or release of gaps for both 1) periodic gaps and 2) aperiodic gap in one UEAssistanceInformation Msg. 18 To report the assistance information, the UE maps the timing info of the Gap on the network B to the network A and reports the mapped timing info to the network A.20 For the gap assistance information, the Gap start time, Duration of the gap and gap repetition period (for periodic) may be included. FFS is other information is included (e.g. gap purpose”);
and transmitting the gap preference to the first PLMN (NPL: “(section 7.9, according to which the gap preference is transmitted to the network, which is the first PLMN, through UEAssistanceInformation”);
NPL does not explicitly a relay UE and the gap preference is at least partly based on the sidelink connection to the remote UE
Fuji however discloses a relay UE (Fuji: [0139] “( first mode (Mode 1) in which the eNB 200 or a relay node assigns a radio resource for transmitting D2D data (D2D data and/or control data); and a second mode (Mode 2) in which the UE 100 itself selects the radio resource for transmitting the D2D data ”) and the gap preference is at least partly based on the sidelink connection to the remote UE (Fuji: [0322]: “the monitor gap and/or the announcing gap may be called a side link gap. Here, in the side link gap, a side link operation (that is, the D2D operation in the D2D proximity service) is preferentially performed. Specifically, in the side link gap, the UE 100 is capable of performing reception (monitor) or transmission (announcing) of the Discovery signal or the Communication signal. The side link gap may be a period during which no cellular communication (Uu communication) is obliged. The UE 100 is exempt from receiving the PDCCH in the side link gap”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of NPL in view of Fuji to figure out the gap preference is at least partly based on the sidelink connection to the remote UE. One would be motivated to do so to transmit a message to a base station, the message requesting a gap used to receive or transmit a discovery signal that is a direct terminal-to-terminal radio signal for discovering another user terminal (Fuji).
Claims 47 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 27.
As per claim 28, NPL/Fuji discloses the method of claim 27, wherein:
the gap preference comprises a larger gap length of more frequent periodicity than a gap preference of the relay UE that is not based on the sidelink connection and the gap preference is transmitted to the first PLMN in a UE assistance information message or a sidelink UE information message (NPL: “section X.3, "When configured to do so, a MUSIM device can signal the network A a preference to be kept in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A while temporarily switching to network B. This is indicated by scheduling gaps preference. This preference can include information for setup or release of gap(s). The network A can configure at most 3 gap patterns for MUSIM purpose: two periodic gaps and a single aperiodic gap"; & Annex, RAN2#115-e, "Gap configuration assistance information 16 UE is allowed to include assistance information for setup or release of gaps for both 1) periodic gaps and 2) aperiodic gap in one UEAssistanceInformation Msg. 18 To report the assistance information, the UE maps the timing info of the Gap on the network B to the network A and reports the mapped timing info to the network A.20 For the gap assistance information, the Gap start time, Duration of the gap and gap repetition period (for periodic) may be included. FFS is other information is included”).
As per claim 29, NPL/Fuji discloses the method of claim 27, further comprising: transmitting the gap preference to the remote UE (Fuji: [ABS]: “a gap used to receive or transmit a discovery signal that is a direct terminal-to-terminal radio signal for discovering another user terminal”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of NPL in view of Fuji to figure out the gap preference is at least partly based on the sidelink connection to the remote UE. One would be motivated to do so to transmit a message to a base station, the message requesting a gap used to receive or transmit a discovery signal that is a direct terminal-to-terminal radio signal for discovering another user terminal (Fuji).
As per claim 30, NPL/Fuji discloses the method of claim 27, further comprising: requesting a remote UE gap preference from the remote UE; and receiving the remote UE gap preference from the remote UE; wherein the gap preference is based on the remote UE gap preference received from the remote UE (Fuji: [0110 & 0332]: “ The UE 100 is a mobile communication device and performs radio communication with a connected cell (a serving cell) & the monitor gap and/or the announcing gap may be called a side link gap. Here, in the side link gap, a side link operation (that is, the D2D operation in the D2D proximity service) is preferentially performed. Specifically, in the side link gap, the UE 100 is capable of performing reception (monitor) or transmission (announcing) of the Discovery signal or the Communication signal. The side link gap may be a period during which no cellular communication (Uu communication) is obliged. The UE 100 is exempt from receiving the PDCCH in the side link gap”).
Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of NPL in view of Fuji to figure out the gap preference is at least partly based on the sidelink connection to the remote UE. One would be motivated to do so to transmit a message to a base station, the message requesting a gap used to receive or transmit a discovery signal that is a direct terminal-to-terminal radio signal for discovering another user terminal (Fuji).
As per claim 31, NPL/Fuji discloses the method of claim 27, further comprising: receiving a gap configuration from the first PLMN (NPL: “section X.3, "When
configured to do so, a MUSIM device can signal the network A a preference to be kept in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A while temporarily switching to network B. This is indicated by scheduling gaps preference. This preference can include information for setup or release of gap(s). The network A can configure at most 3 gap patterns for MUSIM purpose: two periodic gaps and a single aperiodic gap"); and
transmitting the gap configuration to the remote UE (NPL: “(section 7.9, according to which the gap preference is transmitted to the network, which is the first PLMN, through UEAssistanceInformation”).
As per claim 32, NPL/Fuji discloses the method of claim 27, wherein: the gap preference is transmitted to the first PLMN using radio resource control, RRC, signalling (NPL: “section X.3, "When configured to do so, a MUSIM device can signal the network A a preference to be kept in RRC_CONNECTED state in Network A while temporarily switching to network B. This is indicated by scheduling gaps preference. This preference can include information for setup or release of gap(s). ");
the gap preference is transmitted to the first PLMN using medium access control, MAC signalling (NPL: “RAN2 will not create MAC CE activation of gaps in MUSIM, but if the common gap discussion allows this anyway, RAN2 will not prevent that").
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes:
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/SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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