DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
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 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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the national stage application of an international application filed on 27 Dec 2018.
Response to Arguments
The amendments to the claimed invention appear to overcome the written description rejection. As for the limitation added to the claimed invention in the Rule 111 Reply, it appears to find support as the multiplexing method shown in figure 12. This appears to be the only instance in which “cyclic shift” is recited in the disclosure.
The Reply also alleges “while Park teaches that a collision between PSFCH transmission resources may be avoided by applying a cyclic shift hopping value, Park remains silent with respect to using a cyclic shift configuration of an uplink control channel.” Reply, 9 (citing Park, ¶¶232-237). The Examiner contends Park does teach using a PUCCH’s cyclic shift configuration. Specifically, Park teaches using the same ZC sequence as a PUCCH when configuring a PSFCH, where the sequence implements a cyclic shift hopping operation for ACK/NACK resources. Park, ¶233.
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, 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 7, 8, 13, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Desai (US 2019/0052436) in view of Park (US 20210288778) (cited on PTO-892 dated 13 Feb 2024) or, in the alternative, Desai in view of Park and further in view of Yi (US 20200136784).
Regarding claims 7 and 13, Desai teaches a terminal and a method comprising:
a receiver that receives, from another terminal, control information and a shared channel scheduled by the control information (para. 97 and 121, step 266 in figure 8, subframes 334 and 346 in figure 14 of Desai – destination vehicle receives SCI on PSCCH [control information] and data packet on PSSCH [shared channel]);
a controller that determines a resource of a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH) associated with the shared channel (para. 115 and 117 of Desai – source mobile device determines the ACK/NACK resources for the sidelink communication and provides the associated scheduling information to the destination device; para. 141-142 and 177 of Desai – destination device determines the location of resources for transmitting ACK/NACK [location of PSHICH] based on SCI from source device; para. 116 of Desai – ACK/NACK resources derived from the location of the PSSCH [i.e. shared channel]); and
a transmitter that transmits, to the other terminal via the PSFCH (claim 20 of Desai – PSHICH), a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) response corresponding to the shared channel (para. 122 and step 268 in figure 8 of Desai – destination device sends ACK/NACK in response to data packet received via PSSCH),
wherein the controller determines . . . the resource of the PSFCH (see citation for previous “controller” limitation; para. 151 of Desai – ACK/NACK resource based on location of PSSCH [e.g. when PSSCH is transmitted on sub-channel 4, the ACK/NACK resource is the 5th PRB of the ACK/NACK pool]),
the receiver receives, from a base station, an upper layer parameter indicating whether the HARQ response is enabled or disabled (para. 151 of Desai – eNB broadcasts ACK/NACK pool in SIB to all UEs; para. 168 and 173 of Desai – RRC signaling [upper layer parameter] indicates the ACK/NACK pool),
wherein the transmitter transmits, based on the determination of the resource of the PSFCH and the upper layer parameter indicating that the HARQ response is enabled, the HARQ response corresponding to the shared channel (para. 115 of Desai – DCI from base station can indicate the set of resources to select from for ACK/NACK), and
wherein the transmitter does not transmit, based on the determination of the resource of the PSFCH and the upper layer parameter indicating that the HARQ response is disabled, the HARQ response corresponding to the shared channel. Desai, ¶¶168, 173 (absence of an ACK/NACK pool indication in the RRC signal implicitly indicates that the transmission does not use HARQ).
Desai does not explicitly teach (1) determining the location of the ACK/NACK resource “based on a maximum subchannel of the shared channel” or (2) “wherein configurations of a format of the PSFCH to the other terminal uses a cyclic shift configuration of an uplink control channel.” Regarding (1), Desai fails to make any reference to where sub-channel 4 fails within the time-frequency resources of the shared channel. However, Park teaches a PSFCH based on a PSSCH, a shared channel. Park, ¶164. In Park, the PSFCH occupies the same frequency resources or subchannels as the PSSCH. Id. at ¶¶164-165. In other words, the greatest subchannel of the PSSCH 920 in figure 9 is also the greatest subchannel for the PSFCH 930. Id. at figure 9 (top horizontal dashed line represents maximum subchannel of PSSCH).
Regarding (2), Park teaches a PSFCH format for transmitting HARQ feedback information, where the PSFCH format follows the existing PUCCH format. Park, ¶233. Specifically, the PUCCH format defines a ZC sequence that enables cyclic shift hopping for PSFCH transmissions. Id. at ¶¶233-234. At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to transmit the PSHICH, as taught by Desai, using the same subchannels used for PSSCH, as taught by Park, in order to simplify PSFCH allocation by having all of the frequency resources used for the PSSCH also being used for PSFCH. Park, ¶165. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to implement a cyclic shift hopping operation based on a PUCCH format, as taught by Park, when defining resources for PSFCH, taught by Desai, in order to avoid collisions between PDSFCH transmission resources. Id. at ¶232
In the alternative, the combination of Desai and Park does not explicitly teach (2) “wherein configurations of a format of the PSFCH to the other terminal uses a cyclic shift configuration of an uplink control channel.” However, Yi teaches transmission of an ACK/NACK channel following a ZC-based sequence with cyclic shift, which is similar to PUCCH format 1. Yi, ¶¶108-109. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use the ZC-based sequence similar to PUCCH format 1, as taught by Yi, when transmitting the PSFCH, taught by the combination of Desai and Park, in order to allow multiple users to share the same time-frequency resources without interfering with each other (i.e. orthogonality).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Desai and Park (and Yi) also teaches wherein the controller determines, based on a starting position of the shared channel, the resource of the PSFCH (para. 116 of Desai – ACK/NACK resources may be implicitly derived from the location of the data packet [PSSCH]; Park, ¶238 and figure 15 – slot2 for PSFCH transmission resource is based on PSSCH transmissions in slot0 and slot1).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Desai and Park (and Yi) also teaches wherein the control information includes an indicator indicating whether the HARQ response is enabled or disabled (para. 171 of Desai – bit indicator in SCI indicates the presence or absence of HARQ resources [i.e. without HARQ resources, HARQ response is disabled, with HARQ resources, HARQ response is enabled]), and
wherein the transmitter transmits, based on the indicator indicating that the HARQ response is enabled, the HARQ response corresponding to the shared channel (para. 178 of Desai – ACK or NACK transmitted based on whether PSSCH is properly received and whether HARQ resources are present).
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Desai in view of Park (of record), and further in view of Panteleev (US 20180206176).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Desai and Park teaches the terminal according to claim 7 and a sidelink feedback channel (para. 28 of Desai - PSHICH), but does not explicitly teach wherein the configurations of the format of the PSFCH uses at least a part of configurations of the uplink control channel. However, Panteleev teaches using PUCCH format 4 or 5 to incorporate sidelink ACK/NACK feedbacks. Panteleev, ¶ 169 (128 bits of either format is reused to carry ACK/NACK information). At the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the effective filing date of the invention (AIA ), it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to reuse an uplink control channel format for sidelink feedback, as taught by Panteleev, when transmitting the PSFCH, taught by the combination of Desai and Park, because sidelink resources are deployed in the uplink spectrum, thus one skilled in the art would configure sidelink feedback channels similar to how uplink feedback channels are configured for greater compatibility. Id. at ¶ 167.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is cited on a previous PTO-892, including Guo ‘318, ¶¶265-266 (PSFCH subchannel associated with PSSCH subchannel based on an offset L) and Vaidya, which teaches an explicit indication to disable HARQ between a base station and user equipment.
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and fax number is 571-270-8514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for authorizing unsecure communication). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am to 4pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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