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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5, 8-10, 13-15, 17, 20-21, and 23, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Freda et al. (US 2018/0092017 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 15, Freda discloses:
a user equipment (fig.1b element 102), comprising:
a processor (fig.1b element 118); and
a memory (fig.1b wherein there are at least two memory), being non-transitory and configured to:
store an instruction executable by the processor, configured to:
perform a method for controlling channel discovery (par.[0007] which recites, in part, “The remote WTRU may determine channel quality based on the transmissions. The remote WTRU may determine whether channel quality for a mobile relay exceeds a configured threshold. The configured threshold may be based on a required channel quality corresponding to application layer data to be transmitted from the remote WTRU via the mobile relays. The remote WTRU may rank the mobile relays.”, par.[0102]), performed by user equipment (par.[0007] which recites, the Wireless Transmit and Receive Unit (WTRU) which is a User Equiment), and comprising:
generating a first determination condition in response to received configuration information (par.[0102] wherein the Remote WTRU, perform signal quality evaluation, based on one or more certain conditions, such as a signal quality threshold. Additionally, the thresholds are configured at the UE. See par.[0113 – 0117] which describes the criterion for autonomous reselection of relay, and the configuration that allows for the remote UE to autonomously reselect a relay), wherein the first determination condition is a start condition for a channel discovery process corresponding to the user equipment (par.[0102] which recites, in part, “The remote WTRU may start a reselection procedure when the signal quality of the mobile relay WTRU to which the remote WTRU is connected is below the configured threshold.”); and
starting the channel discovery process of the user equipment in response to determining that the user equipment satisfies the first determination condition (par.[0102] as discussed above, wherein the UE may perform signal quality evaluation of channels associated with links to different mobile relay-UEs when the threshold condition of the mobile relay, the remote WTRU meets the threshold condition).
Regarding claims 2 and 17, Freda discloses:
wherein the first determination condition comprises one or more of:
a first channel measurement result between the user equipment and a relay device being less than a first threshold (par.[0102] which recites, in part, “The remote WTRU may start a reselection procedure when the signal quality of the mobile relay WTRU to which the remote WTRU is connected is below the configured threshold.”);
a second channel measurement result between the user equipment and an opposite end device being less than a second threshold;
a first timer corresponding to the user equipment reaching a timing threshold;
a number of data retransmission that is received reaching a first value; and a number of feedback loss between the user equipment and the opposite end device reaching a second value.
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Freda discloses:
wherein the configuration information is carried by an RRC radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message information (par.[0098] which recites, in part, “Mobile relay selection may employ the measurements provided by lower layers and/or one or more thresholds associated with the measurements. The associated thresholds may be provided in the application layer and/or by lower layers. The associated thresholds may be provided as part of a RRC configuration.” Par.[0224]), and generating the first determination condition in response to the received configuration information comprises:
generating the first determination condition by modifying a threshold of a channel quality parameter corresponding to the start condition according to the RRC reconfiguration message information (The configured threshold may be based on a required channel quality corresponding to application layer data to be transmitted from the remote WTRU via the mobile relays. The remote WTRU may rank the mobile relays.”, par.[0102]. The UE can receive the RRC message and use it configure/reconfigure thresholds for selecting a Relay-UE).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Freda discloses:
wherein the channel quality parameter comprises one or more of the first threshold, the second threshold, the timing threshold, the first value, and the second value (par.[0102 and 0113 – 0117] wherein the UE is configured for a relay-UE selection/reselection. The UE is configured with a one or more thresholds corresponding to a channel quality and link between a remote-UE and a relay-UE); and
generating the first determination condition by modifying the threshold of the channel quality parameter corresponding to the start condition according to the RRC reconfiguration information comprises:
obtaining a target threshold of the channel quality parameter carried in the RRC reconfiguration information; and generating the first determination condition by modifying the threshold of the channel quality parameter according to the target threshold (par.[0102 and 0113 – 0117] wherein the UE is configured for a relay-UE selection/reselection. The UE is configured with a one or more thresholds corresponding to a channel quality and link between a remote-UE and a relay-UE. Additionally, the UE may be receive updated configuration, in particular when a remote-UE selects a new relay-UE or application, or thresholds for service change. The eNB or relay needs to update the previous thresholds).
Regarding claim 8, Freda discloses:
wherein the channel discovery process comprises at least one of a process of sending a discovery signal, or a process of receiving a discovery signal (par.[0115] which recites, in part, “Based on the configuration, the remote WTRU may enable measurements over the PC5 link of mobile relay WTRUs which are transmitting discovery messages within the communication range of the remote WTRU.”).
Regarding claim 9, Freda discloses:
wherein the discovery signal comprises at least one of:
a relay discovery signal from the user equipment to a network, or relay discovery signal or a non-relay discovery signal from the user equipment to another user equipment (figs.5-6 which teach the transmission of discovery messages wherein the message to and from discoverer to discoveree comprise discovery messages).
Regarding claim 10, 14, and 23, Freda discloses:
a network device (fig.1a the base station), comprising:
a processor (the office notes that a base station comprises a processor); and
a memory (the office notes that a base station has a one or more memories), being a non-transitory computer readable medium storing an executable instruction executable by the processor and configured to perform:
a method for controlling channel discovery (par.[0007] which recites, in part, “The remote WTRU may determine channel quality based on the transmissions. The remote WTRU may determine whether channel quality for a mobile relay exceeds a configured threshold. The configured threshold may be based on a required channel quality corresponding to application layer data to be transmitted from the remote WTRU via the mobile relays. The remote WTRU may rank the mobile relays.”, par.[0102]), performed by a network device (fig.1a depicts a wireless communications network with a plurality of base stations, element 114), and comprising:
sending configuration information to a user equipment (par.[0113] which recites, in part, “The eNB or the mobile relay WTRU may send a configuration to the remote WTRU.”), wherein the configuration information instructs the user equipment to generate a first determination condition (par.[0102] wherein the Remote WTRU, perform signal quality evaluation, based on one or more certain conditions, such as a signal quality threshold. Additionally, the thresholds are configured at the UE. See par.[0113 – 0117] which describes the criterion for autonomous reselection of relay, and the configuration that allows for the remote UE to autonomously reselect a relay), wherein the first determination condition is a start condition for a channel discovery process corresponding to the user equipment (par.[0102] which recites, in part, “The remote WTRU may start a reselection procedure when the signal quality of the mobile relay WTRU to which the remote WTRU is connected is below the configured threshold.”)
in response to determining that the user equipment satisfies the first determination condition (par.[0102] as discussed above, wherein the UE may perform signal quality evaluation of channels associated with links to different mobile relay-UEs when the threshold condition of the mobile relay, the remote WTRU meets the threshold condition).
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.
Claim(s) 7 and 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Freda as applied to the independent claims, in view of Liu et al. (US 2023/0262790 A1).
Regarding claims 7 and 22, the disclosure of Freda teaches claim 5 and an RRC_RECONFIGURATION message, but may not disclose:
wherein the RRC reconfiguration information comprises an address of a target device, and the method further comprises: forwarding the RRC reconfiguration information to the target device according to the address of the target device.
In an analogous art the disclosure of Yi teaches:
wherein the RRC reconfiguration information comprises an address of a target device, and the method further comprises: forwarding the RRC reconfiguration information to the target device according to the address of the target device (par.[0121] which recites, in part, “When the IAB donor-DU changes, the RRCReconfiguration message may further include an IP address allocated by the target IAB donor-DU to the handover IAB node (or a handover IAB-DU).”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Freda for reselection, with the disclosure of Liu for reselection and its messaging. The motivation/suggestion would have been to inform the MT/UE of the IP address of the target IAB-DU which it is being handed over to.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 3-4 and 18-19 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Basu Mallick et al. (US 2019/0109631 A1) “ProSe Relay UE Activation”
Thyagarajan et al. (US 2018/0255505 A1) “Measurement Control for UE Relay Selection in ProSe Based UE-to-Network Relay”
Wu et al. (US 2018/0199312 A1) “Sidelink Information Transmission Device and Method and Communication System” see element 402 of fig.4, and par.[0053].
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JAMAAL HENSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2411
/JAMAAL HENSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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