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 .
This Office action is in response the preliminary amendment filed on 12/18/2024. Claims 1-20 have been canceled, and new claims 21-40 have been added.
Claims 21-40 are presented for examination.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application 202210621531.7 filed in China on 06/02/2022. Receipt is acknowledged of the certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 01/09/2025 and 10/24/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are 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.
Claims 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 2023/0013067 A1), in view of Pan (US 2022/0377598 A1).
As to claims 21 and 26, Liu discloses the invention as claimed, including a method, comprising:
sending information about a first resource (i.e., resource/configuration associated with PC5 interface) to a first terminal device (Fig. 2, Remote UE), wherein the information about the first resource indicates that the first resource is used to transmit a first service of the first terminal device (Fig. 2, Remote UE), and the first resource is used to transmit the first service between the first terminal device (Fig. 2, Remote UE) and a second terminal device (Fig. 2, Relay UE) (Fig. 3, 101; ¶0012, “transmitting configuration parameters for a PC5 interface for transmission of relay service to the remote UE”; ¶0062, “The QoS profile in this case is end-to-end QoS requirements for the service, which means that QoS parameter allocation needs to be performed for the service on two links between the remote UE and the relay UE”; ¶0067, “the remote UE can obtain configuration parameters for the PC5 interface for transmission of relay service from the network-side device or relay UE, which facilitates unified parameter control by the network-side device to ensure end-to-end transmission performance of the service of the remote UE”);
sending information about a second resource (i.e., resource/configuration associated with Uu interface) to the second terminal device (Fig. 2, Relay UE), wherein the information about the second resource indicates that the second resource is used to transmit the first service (¶0062, “The QoS profile in this case is end-to-end QoS requirements for the service, which means that QoS parameter allocation needs to be performed for the service on two links between the remote UE and the relay UE and between the relay UE and the base station, to meet final end-to-end QoS requirements”; ¶0073, “Uu RRC signaling for the remote UE refers to RRC signaling between the remote UE and a serving cell and/or base station, a Uu interface refers to an interface link between the relay UE and the serving cell and/or base station…Taking the Uu RRC signaling for the remote UE as an example, the two ends are the remote UE and the base station, an uplink transmission path is from the remote UE to the relay UE through the PC5 interface first, and then from the Uu interface of the relay UE to the base station”); and
receiving the first service from the first terminal device via the second terminal device (Fig. 2; ¶0110, “receiving quality of service QoS parameters of a to-be-initiated service transmitted by the remote UE”; ¶0179, “the remote UE wants to transmit a service that is to be forwarded through relay UE, the remote UE needs to carry relay indication information in a service report, indicating that this is a relay service, thereby allowing a network side to configure appropriate parameters for the remote UE”).
Liu does not specifically disclose the second resource is used to transmit the first service between a network device and the second terminal device.
However, Pan discloses the second resource is used to transmit the first service between a network device and the second terminal device (¶0063, “Based on signalled QoS rules (via SMF) or derived QoS rules (Uplink Uu via reflective QoS), the UE-to-Network Relay may use the L2 Link Modification procedures as defined in TS 23.287 [5], clause 6.3.3.4 to either move the corresponding ProSe service(s) to the mapped existing PC5 QoS flow”; ¶0118, “the UE-to-Network Relay to be configured/provisioned with the proper mapping information. The mapping of 5QIs and PQIs are configured/provisioned at UE-to-Network Relay for a specific service or for a group of services. The 5QI for Uu and PQI for PC5 are used together to support the end-to-end QoS requirement”; ¶0122-¶0123; ¶0139, “5G ProSe UE-to-Network Relay supports the mapping of Uu flow level QoS parameters to PC5 QoS parameters, including the mapping of 5QIs to PQIs, based on configuration or, for a non-configured mapping of a requested QoS parameter, based on its implementation”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Liu to include the second resource is used to transmit the first service between a network device and the second terminal device, as taught by Pan because it would improve end-to-end service quality by coordinating QoS across the UU and PC5 links (Pan; ¶0061; ¶0078; ¶0122).
As to claim 22, Liu discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein the first service has a first correspondence with the first resource (¶0007, “configuration parameters for a PC5 interface for transmission of relay service from a network-side device or relay UE”; ¶0010, “configuration parameters for a PC5 interface for transmission of relay service to the remote UE through a PC5 radio resource control RRC message”).
As to claim 23, Liu discloses the method according to claim 22, wherein the first correspondence is a correspondence between a quality of service (QOS) flow corresponding to the first service and a first logical channel, the first logical channel is a logical channel using the first resource, and the first logical channel is a corresponding logical channel for transmitting data of the first service between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (¶0062, “The QoS profile in this case is end-to-end QoS requirements for the service, which means that QoS parameter allocation needs to be performed for the service on two links between the remote UE and the relay UE and between the relay UE and the base station”; ¶0175, “the remote UE can obtain the transmission configurations for the PC5 link dedicated to the relay architecture. Generally, this set of transmission configurations has a higher guarantee of QoS than that for a same service transmission over a direct PC5 link. In this way, it is ensured that after transmission over two links, end-to-end QoS requirements for a service are still met. Moreover, the network may have control over allocation of the QoS parameters across the two links”).
As to claim 24, Liu discloses the method according to claim 22, further comprising: sending the first correspondence to the first terminal device (Fig. 3, 101; ¶0012, “transmitting configuration parameters for a PC5 interface for transmission of relay service to the remote UE”; ¶0062, “The QoS profile in this case is end-to-end QoS requirements for the service, which means that QoS parameter allocation needs to be performed for the service on two links between the remote UE and the relay UE”; ¶0067, “the remote UE can obtain configuration parameters for the PC5 interface for transmission of relay service from the network-side device or relay UE, which facilitates unified parameter control by the network-side device to ensure end-to-end transmission performance of the service of the remote UE”).
As to claim 25, Liu discloses the method according to claim 21, wherein that the information about the first resource indicates that the first resource is used to transmit the first service comprises: the information about the first resource indicates that a first logical channel uses the first resource, and the first logical channel is a corresponding logical channel for transmitting data of the first service between the first terminal device and the second terminal device (¶0012, “transmitting configuration parameters for a PC5 interface for transmission of relay service to the remote UE”; ¶0062, “The QoS profile in this case is end-to-end QoS requirements for the service, which means that QoS parameter allocation needs to be performed for the service on two links between the remote UE and the relay UE”; ¶0067, “the remote UE can obtain configuration parameters for the PC5 interface for transmission of relay service from the network-side device or relay UE, which facilitates unified parameter control by the network-side device to ensure end-to-end transmission performance of the service of the remote UE”; ¶0175, “the remote UE can obtain the transmission configurations for the PC5 link dedicated to the relay architecture. Generally, this set of transmission configurations has a higher guarantee of QoS than that for a same service transmission over a direct PC5 link. In this way, it is ensured that after transmission over two links, end-to-end QoS requirements for a service are still met. Moreover, the network may have control over allocation of the QoS parameters across the two links”).
As to claim 27, Liu discloses the method according to claim 26, wherein the second correspondence is a correspondence between a data radio bearer corresponding to the first service and a second logical channel, the second logical channel is a logical channel using the second resource, and the second logical channel is a corresponding logical channel for transmitting data of the first service between the second terminal device and the network device (¶0008, “establishing, based on the obtained configuration parameters, a sidelink radio bearer SLRB and performing data transmission”; ¶0074, “the configuration parameters for the PC5 interface for transmission of relay service include a sidelink SL radio bearer RB configuration list and an SL radio link layer control protocol RLC bearer configuration list…”; ¶0075, “the remote UE may look up, based on QoS parameters of a to-be-initiated service, a corresponding SLRB configuration and RLC bearer configuration from the SLRB configuration list and the SL RLC bearer configuration list”; ¶0080, “The RLC bearer configuration includes a plurality of RLC configuration parameters, and at least one of the plurality of RLC configuration parameters includes a first RLC bearer configuration value for UE-to-UE direct PC5 communication and a second RLC bearer configuration value for communication between the remote UE and the network-side device through the relay UE”).
As to claim 28, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth above with claim 21. In addition, Liu discloses a method, comprising:
sending the first service to the second terminal device by using the first resource (¶0016, “forwarding the configuration parameters for the PC5 interface for transmission of relay service to the remote UE through relay UE”; ¶0112, “receiving configuration information transmitted by the network-side device through a Uu interface, where the configuration information includes configuration information for relay UE and/or configuration information for the remote UE”); and
receiving the first service, and sending the first service to the network device by using the second resource (¶0185, “The relay UE may report QoS information of the service to a network side, and indicate that this is a relay service. The network side may determine its sidelink transmission configuration according to the QoS information, and transmit the configuration information to the relay UE through a Uu interface”).
As to claims 29-34, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth above with claims 22-27, respectively.
As to claim 35, it is rejected for the same reasons set forth above with claim 21. In addition, Liu discloses an apparatus, comprising: one or more processors; and a storage medium in data communication with the one or more processors, the storage medium containing instructions (Figs. 6-9; ¶0028-¶0031).
As to claims 36-40, they are rejected for the same reasons set forth above with claims 22-26, respectively.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wang et al. (US 2023/0073469), Zhao et al. (US 2023/0328697), Kim et al. (US 2021/0014813), Tong et al. (US 2015/0271856), Ryu et al. (US 2022/0046745), Agiwal et al. (US 10,306,599) disclose method and apparatus for allocating resources in wireless communication system supporting D2D communication.
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/JUNGWON CHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454 October 7, 2026
