CTNF 18/876,964 CTNF 80501 DETAILED ACTION This application has been examined. Claims 1-20 are pending. In order to facilitate communication with the Examiner and expedite the prosecution of the instant application the Applicant is requested to submit written authorization to authorize the USPTO to communicate via electronic mail. The written authorization must be compliant with the language from MPEP § 502.03. Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Priority This application claims benefits of priority from Foreign Application CN202210872005.8 (China) filed July 19, 2022. The effective date of the claims described in this application is July 19, 2022. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 12/29/2024, 11/20/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 1,4,6,9-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang1 (USPGPUB 2024/0172033) further in view of Wu (USPGPUB 2025/0203347) Regarding Claim 1 Zhang1 Figure 2B,Figure 8D,Paragraph 97 disclosed wherein a bit rate limitation for traffic between the relay terminal device and the first terminal device comprises at least one of UE-PC5-AMBR of the first terminal device or PC5 link AMBR of the link between the first terminal device and the relay terminal device. Zhang1 Paragraph 441,Paragraph 456 disclosed wherein the queue management (QM) function operates at intermediate relay (RL) UE side with the QoS requirements as inputs. Zhang1 Paragraph 328 disclosed wherein the relay terminal device is used to relay communication between the first terminal device and a data network. Zhang1 disclosed (re. Claim 1) session establishment method, applied to a terminal device, (Zhang1-Paragraph 441,Paragraph 456, queue management (QM) function operates at intermediate relay (RL) UE side with the QoS requirements as inputs, Paragraph 328, the relay terminal device is used to relay communication between the first terminal device and a data network .) the method comprising: determining first Quality of Service (QoS) parameter information according to a service requirement; (Zhang1-Paragraph 495, incorporating information on a session AMBR and a PC5 link AMBR of the first UE into a PC5 link establishment procedure so that a relay UE will be aware of the information .) sending a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session establishment request (Zhang1-Paragraph 53, UE-to-Network Relay initiates a new PDU session establishment or modification procedure for relaying ) carrying the first QoS parameter information,(Zhang1-Paragraph 57, Relay UE's AMF and SMF then provides Remote UE's subscription to Policy Control Function (PCF) for QoS decision ) such that the network determines second QoS parameter information according to the first QoS parameter information, (Zhang1-Paragraph 91, then the PCF may make a QoS decision based on the relay UE session-AMBR and remote UE session-AMBR , and generates a PDU session establishment response according to the second QoS parameter information; (Zhang1-Paragraph 61, From this point, the uplink and downlink relaying may start. For downlink traffic forwarding, the PC5 QoS Rule is used to map the downlink IP packet to the PC5 QoS Flow. For uplink traffic forwarding, the 5G QoS Rule is used to map the uplink IP packet to the Uu QoS Flow ) ,and receiving the PDU session establishment response returned and establishing a PDU session.(Zhang1-Paragraph 94, receiving at least one bit rate limitation from a network device. The method further comprises applying the at least one bit rate limitation. A relay terminal device is used to relay communication between the first terminal device and a data network .) While Zhang1 substantially disclosed the claimed invention Zhang1 does not disclose (re. Claim 1) a network-side device that generates a PDU session establishment response Wu Figure 3,Paragraph 64, Paragraph 66 disclosed wherein network side function includes a second network element, the second network element receives a PDU session establishment request sent by a UE, and after receiving the PDU session establishment acceptation information returned by the first network element, the second network element sends the PDU session identifier and the PDU session establishment acceptation information to the UE via a NAS message. Wu disclosed (re. Claim 1) a network-side device that generates a PDU session establishment response (Wu-Figure 3,Paragraph 64,Paragraph 66, network side function includes a second network element, the second network element receives a PDU session establishment request sent by a UE ) Zhang1 and Wu are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding session and bandwidth provisioning. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Wu into Zhang1. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable the transmission of XRM services and multi-modal data flows.(Wu-Paragraph 4) Zhang1-Wu disclosed (re. Claim 1) receiving the PDU session establishment response (Zhang1-Paragraph 94, receiving at least one bit rate limitation from a network device. The method further comprises applying the at least one bit rate limitation. A relay terminal device is used to relay communication between the first terminal device and a data network .) returned by the network-side device (Wu-Figure 3,Paragraph 64,Paragraph 66, after receiving the PDU session establishment acceptation information returned by the first network element, the second network element sends the PDU session identifier and the PDU session establishment acceptation information to the UE via a NAS message ) Regarding Claim 4 Claim 4 (re. method) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1. Claim 4 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1. Furthermore Zhang1-Wu disclosed (re. Claim 4) a session establishment method, applied to a terminal device, the method comprising: acquiring a service requirement ;acquiring a Data Network Name (DNN) parameter of a service according to the service requirement;(Zhang1-Paragraph 36, PDU session parameters, e.g. Data Network Name (DNN) ) in response to detecting existence of a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session established based on the DNN parameter, (Zhang1-Paragraph 50, establish a PDU session for relaying with default PDU session parameters received in step 0 or pre-configured in the UE-to-NW relay, e.g. DNN ) determining third Quality of Service (QoS) parameter information according to the established PDU session and the service requirement; sending a PDU session modification request carrying the third QoS parameter information to a network-side device, (Zhang1-Paragraph 47, ProSe 5G UE-to-Network Relay capable UE may modify the existing PDU session in order to provide relay traffic towards Remote UE(s). ) such that the network-side device determines fourth QoS parameter information according to the third QoS parameter information, and generates a PDU session modification response according to the fourth QoS parameter information; and receiving the PDU session modification response returned by the network-side device, and modifying the PDU session.(Zhang1-Paragraph 130, increasing sidelink (SL) resource assignment to the first terminal device and/or prioritized bit rate (PBR) of the first terminal device's SL logical channel carrying non-GBR traffic when the assistance information indicates that aggregate date rate limitation for both relayed Uu uplink traffic and PC5 traffic of the first terminal device is not exceeded ) Regarding Claim 6 Claim 6 (re. method) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1. Claim 6 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1. Regarding Claim 9 Claim 9 (re. method) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1. Claim 9 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1. Furthermore Zhang1-Wu disclosed (re. Claim 9) a session establishment method, applied to a network-side device, the method comprising: receiving, from a terminal device, a Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session modification request carrying third Quality of Service (QoS) parameter information, Zhang1-Paragraph 57, Relay UE's AMF and SMF then provides Remote UE's subscription to Policy Control Function (PCF) for QoS decision ,Paragraph 50, establish a PDU session for relaying with default PDU session parameters received in step 0 or pre-configured in the UE-to-NW relay, e.g. Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI), DNN, SSC mode or PDU Session Type ) wherein the third QoS parameter information is determined by the terminal device according to a PDU session which has been established and a service requirement; performing, according to the third QoS parameter information, comparison and adjustment processing on a QoS parameter which is delivered in advance to determine fourth QoS parameter information; (Zhang1-Paragraph 47, ProSe 5G UE-to-Network Relay capable UE may modify the existing PDU session in order to provide relay traffic towards Remote UE(s). ) generating a PDU session modification response according to the fourth QoS parameter information; and sending the PDU session modification response to the terminal device to modify the PDU session.( Zhang1-Paragraph 130, increasing sidelink (SL) resource assignment to the first terminal device and/or prioritized bit rate (PBR) of the first terminal device's SL logical channel carrying non-GBR traffic when the assistance information indicates that aggregate date rate limitation for both relayed Uu uplink traffic and PC5 traffic of the first terminal device is not exceeded ) Regarding Claim 10 Claim 10 (re. terminal device) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1. Claim 10 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1. Regarding Claim 11 Claim 11 (re. network-side device) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 6. Claim 11 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 6. Regarding Claim 12 Claim 12 (re. non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1. Claim 12 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1. Regarding Claim 13 Claim 13 (re. terminal device) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 4. Claim 13 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 4. Regarding Claim 14 Claim 14 (re. network-side device) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 9. Claim 13 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 9. Regarding Claim 15 Claim 15 (re. non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 4. Claim 15 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 4. Regarding Claim 16 Claim 16 (re. non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 6. Claim 16 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 6. Regarding Claim 17 Claim 17 (re. non-transitory computer-readable storage medium) recites substantially similar limitations as Claim 1 and 9. Claim 16 is rejected on the same basis as Claim 1 and 9 . 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2-3,5,7-8,18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (USPGPUB 2024/0172033) further in view of Wu (USPGPUB 2025/0203347) further in view of Zhang2 (USPGPUB 20230/096280) further in view of Diachina (US Patent 12302161) Regarding Claim 2,5,18,20 Zhang1-Wu disclosed (re. Claim 2,5,18,20) wherein determining first QoS parameter information according to a service requirement comprises: acquiring the service requirement; (Zhang1-Paragraph 495, incorporating information on a session AMBR and a PC5 link AMBR of the first UE into a PC5 link establishment procedure so that a relay UE will be aware of the information .) While Zhang1-Wu substantially disclosed the claimed invention Zhang1-Wu does not disclose (re. Claim 2,5,18,20) performing statistical processing on the service requirement to obtain overall bandwidth requirement information and overall delay requirement information; and determining the first QoS parameter information according to the overall bandwidth requirement information and the overall delay requirement information. Zhang2 Figure 6,Paragraph 118 disclosed a method for determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission is provided. Zhang2 disclosed (re. Claim 2, 5,18,20) performing statistical processing on the service requirement to obtain overall bandwidth requirement information (Zhang2-Figure 6,Paragraph 118, determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission for a first service flow, a second service flow, and a third service flow ) and overall delay requirement information; (Zhang2-Paragraph 139, control device runs a network calculus (NC) tool to calculate a theoretical upper bound of a delay in a preset bandwidth, and the controller compares whether the theoretical upper bound of the NC is less than a delay threshold specified in the SLA. If a comparison result is “yes”, the deployed bandwidth meets the SLA requirements ) and Zhang1,Wu and Zhang2 are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding session and bandwidth provisioning. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Zhang2 into Zhang1-Wu. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission, to meet different requirements of different service flows for probabilities that meet the service level parameter requirement in a transmission process. This improves a reliability of service flow transmission. (Zhang2-Paragraph 76) While Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2 substantially disclosed the claimed invention Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2 does not disclose (re. Claim 2, 5,18,20) determining the first QoS parameter information according to the overall bandwidth requirement information and the overall delay requirement information. Diachina Column 4 Lines 15-20 disclosed mapping Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) streams includes receiving traffic class specific information for one or more TSN streams; and determining a set of one or more 5G QoS flows to support the traffic class. Diachina disclosed (re. Claim 2, 5,18,20) determining the first QoS parameter information according to the TSN streams information. (Diachina-Column 4 Lines 15-20, mapping Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) streams includes receiving traffic class specific information for one or more TSN streams; and determining a set of one or more 5G QoS flows to support the traffic class. ) Zhang1,Wu and Diachina are analogous art because they present concepts and practices regarding session and bandwidth provisioning. Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention it would have been obvious to combine Diachina into Zhang1-Wu. The motivation for the said combination would have been to enable more efficient use of radio interface resources associated with a 5G QoS flow used to support a set of TSN flows (streams) corresponding to a TSN traffic class (Diachina-Column 4 Lines 30-35) Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2-Diachina disclosed (re. Claim 2, 5,18,20) determining the first QoS parameter information (Diachina-Column 4 Lines 15-20, mapping Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) streams includes receiving traffic class specific information for one or more TSN streams; and determining a set of one or more 5G QoS flows to support the traffic class. ) according to the overall bandwidth requirement information (Zhang2-Figure 6,Paragraph 118, determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission for a first service flow, a second service flow, and a third service flow ) and the overall delay requirement information. (Zhang2-Paragraph 139, control device runs a network calculus (NC) tool to calculate a theoretical upper bound of a delay in a preset bandwidth, and the controller compares whether the theoretical upper bound of the NC is less than a delay threshold specified in the SLA. If a comparison result is “yes”, the deployed bandwidth meets the SLA requirements ) Regarding Claim 3,19 Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2-Diachina disclosed (re. Claim 3,19) wherein performing statistical processing on the service requirement to obtain overall bandwidth requirement information and overall delay requirement information comprises: acquiring a quantity of services and bandwidth information and delay information of each of the services according to the service requirement; (Zhang2-Figure 6,Paragraph 118, determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission for a first service flow, a second service flow, and a third service flow ) and obtaining the overall bandwidth requirement information and the overall delay requirement information according to the quantity of services and the bandwidth information and the delay information of each of the services. (Zhang2-Figure 6,Paragraph 118, determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission for a first service flow, a second service flow, and a third service flow ) Regarding Claim 7 Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2-Diachina disclosed (re. Claim 7) wherein determining second QoS parameter information according to the first QoS parameter information comprises: acquiring fifth QoS parameter information which is delivered in advance (Zhang1-Paragraph 57, Relay UE's AMF and SMF then provides Remote UE's subscription to Policy Control Function (PCF) for QoS decision ,Paragraph 50, establish a PDU session for relaying with default PDU session parameters received in step 0 or pre-configured in the UE-to-NW relay, e.g. Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI), DNN, SSC mode or PDU Session Type ) and bandwidth threshold information (Zhang2-Figure 6,Paragraph 118, determining a bandwidth for service flow transmission for a first service flow, a second service flow, and a third service flow ) and time delay threshold information specified by an operator, (Zhang2-Paragraph 139, control device runs a network calculus (NC) tool to calculate a theoretical upper bound of a delay in a preset bandwidth, and the controller compares whether the theoretical upper bound of the NC is less than a delay threshold specified in the SLA. If a comparison result is “yes”, the deployed bandwidth meets the SLA requirements ) and performing comparison and adjustment processing on the fifth QoS parameter information according to the first QoS parameter information, the bandwidth threshold information, and the delay threshold information to determine the second QoS parameter information.(Zhang2-Paragraph 34, first device sets a bandwidth threshold, and adjusts a configured bandwidth when the updated bandwidth is greater than or equal to the bandwidth threshold, to improve stability of the network bandwidth configuration .) Regarding Claim 8 Zhang1-Wu-Zhang2-Diachina disclosed (re. Claim 8) wherein performing comparison and adjustment processing on the fifth QoS parameter information according to the first QoS parameter information, the bandwidth threshold information, and the delay threshold information to determine the second QoS parameter information comprises: determining the fifth QoS parameter information (Zhang1-Paragraph 57, Relay UE's AMF and SMF then provides Remote UE's subscription to Policy Control Function (PCF) for QoS decision, Paragraph 50, establish a PDU session for relaying with default PDU session parameters received in step 0 or pre-configured in the UE-to-NW relay, e.g. Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI), DNN, SSC mode or PDU Session Type ) as the second QoS parameter information, in response to the fifth QoS parameter information satisfying the first QoS parameter information, the bandwidth threshold information, and the delay threshold information; or adjusting the fifth QoS parameter information according to the first QoS parameter information, the bandwidth threshold information, and the delay threshold information to obtain the second QoS parameter information, in response to the fifth QoS parameter information not satisfying the first QoS parameter information. (Zhang2-Paragraph 34, first device sets a bandwidth threshold, and adjusts a configured bandwidth when the updated bandwidth is greater than or equal to the bandwidth threshold, to improve stability of the network bandwidth configuration .) Conclusion Examiner’s Note: In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREG C BENGZON whose telephone number is (571)272-3944. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 8 AM - 4:30 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, John Follansbee can be reached on (571) 272-3964. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /GREG C BENGZON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 2 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 3 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 4 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 5 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 6 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 7 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 8 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 9 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 10 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 11 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 12 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 13 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 14 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 15 Art Unit: 2444 Application/Control Number: 18/876,964 Page 16 Art Unit: 2444
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