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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/23/2026 was filed after the mailing date of the application on 02/10/2022. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 04/01/2026, with respect to the rejection of claims 1-3, 6-7, 9, 13, 15-17, 20, 29, 31, 33-39, 52, and 54 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered, but are not persuasive. The arguments have brought to light, however, that the prior art of record was improperly cited. The Cited prior art of Rao et al. (US 2020/0163005) was cited when a different prior art, Rao et al. (US 2019/0239112), hereinafter Rao, was meant to be cited. Thus, while the arguments are not persuasive, this action is marked as a second non-final rejection since the wrong prior art was cited.
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.
Claims 1-3, 6, 13, 15, 16, 29, 31, 33-35, 39, 52, 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng et al. (US 2020/0045674), hereinafter Tseng in further view of Rao et al. (US 2019/0239112) hereinafter Rao.
Regarding Claim 1, Tseng teaches: A method implemented in a Sidelink, SL, User Equipment, UE, the method comprising: detecting a trigger for sending a Radio Resource Control, RRC, information: “the UE may trigger an RRC Connection Resume procedure after a sidelink Buffer Status Report” (Tseng ¶ 0111); and sending the RRC information to a network node, wherein the RRC procedure comprises either an SL configuration procedure or an SL configuration update procedure: “This way, the UE may indicate an SL resource allocation request, e.g., in the RRC Resume Request message, to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0106), where a SL resource allocation is a SL configuration procedure.
Tseng does not teach: the RRC information comprises Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations, the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations
Regarding Claim 1, Rao teaches: the RRC information comprises: “An aspect of the disclosure provides method, at a User Equipment (UE), for obtaining configuration information for one or more Sidelink Radio bearers (SL-RBs) used for sidelink communication. The method includes transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0202) Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows: “the service information includes at least one of: information indicative that the UE is capable of at least one of: unicast, broadcast, and groupcast transmission; an identifier of one or more services supported by the sidelink communication; identifiers of supported services; identifiers of destination UE; identifiers of destination UE group; QoS indicators requirements; and QoS indicators indicative of one or more supported services by the sidelink communication” (Rao ¶ 0202) wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204), the request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204) and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations “In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is the RRC sidelink configuration response. In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is a RRC sidelink reconfiguration message . . . In some embodiments, the configuration information includes QoS class information indicative a set of QoS requirements supported by the one or more SL-RBs. In some embodiments, one or more QoS flows can be mapped to a QoS class” (Rao ¶ 0202).
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 disclosures of Tseng with Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Regarding Claim 2, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: the RRC information comprises either: the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations: “the UE may send an RRC Connection Resume Request message which may include a Resume Cause (e.g., SL resource allocation request)” (Tseng ¶ 0111); or the message that both requests the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and comprises the information that informs the network about the one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations.
Regarding Claim 3, Tseng does not teach: detecting the trigger for sending the RRC information comprises detecting one or more criteria, the one or more criteria comprising: a criterion that an SL Radio Bearer, SLRB, reconfiguration is needed; a criterion that there is a new SL Quality of Service, QoS, flow but no QoS mapping for the new SL QoS flow; a criterion that a new SL QoS mapping is needed; a criterion of a change in an SL-related UE context at the SL UE; or a criterion of performance of one or more autonomous SL-related actions by the SL UE said criterion comprising a criterion of autonomously deciding a new SL-related QoS mapping rule or a criterion of autonomously updating an SL-related UE context.
Regarding Claim 3, Rao teaches: detecting the trigger for sending the RRC information comprises detecting one or more criteria: “If a resource reselection trigger is received due to RRC reconfiguration request from network, change in UE's geo-location, expiry of resource reservation timer/counter, or change in CBR measurements, steps 3-5 may be repeated” (Rao ¶ 0108), the one or more criteria comprising: a criterion of a change in an SL-related UE context at the SL UE: “a resource reselection trigger is received due to . . . change in UE's geo-location” (Rao ¶ 0108).
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 disclosures of Tseng with the disclosure of Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Regarding Claim 6, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: detecting the trigger for sending the RRC information comprises detecting the trigger for sending the RRC information while the SL UE is in an idle or inactive state: “Instead, the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7) and as seen in Tseng FIG. 7 below the UE begins the procedure in an inactive state; and sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node upon detecting the trigger: “After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell, which may include a request for updated SL resource allocation configuration” (Tseng ¶ 0102) and transitioning from the idle or inactive state to a connected state: “Conversely, the UE may transition from the RRC inactive state 264 to the RRC Connected state 262 using an RRC Resume procedure (e.g., procedure d)” (Tseng ¶ 0055).
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Tseng Fig. 7
Regarding Claim 13, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node when in an idle or inactive state: “Instead, the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7) and as seen in Tseng FIG. 7 above the UE begins the procedure in an inactive state; and the RRC information comprises existing RRC information: “in action 860, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell 820, which may include Resume Cause (or an SL resource allocation request” (Tseng ¶ 107), wherein the existing RRC information comprises a RRCResumeRequest message or a RRCSetupRequest message: “the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102).
Regarding Claim 15, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node when in an idle or inactive state: “Instead, the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7) and as seen in Tseng FIG. 7 above the UE begins the procedure in an inactive state; and the RRC information comprises a new RRC message that is common for two or more Radio Access Technologies, RATs: “Additionally, the present implementations may also cover the inter-RAT scenarios and/or intra-RAT scenarios, such as an NR cell configuring NR sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE [RRC message for common RAT], . . . an LTE cell configuring LTE sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE, etc” (Tseng ¶ 0053) wherein the RATs comprise NR and LTE configurations.
Regarding Claim 16, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 1, wherein: sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node when in an idle or inactive state: “Instead, the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7) and as seen in Tseng FIG. 7 above the UE begins the procedure in an inactive state; and the RRC information comprises a new RRC message that is used for SL only: “In the example implementations described below, even though several approaches for sidelink radio resource allocation for NR UEs (e.g., NR V2X UEs) are discussed in connection with the SL resource allocation by dedicated RRC signaling” (Tseng ¶ 0052).
Regarding Claim 29, Tseng teaches: A Sidelink, SL, User Equipment, UE, comprising: one or more transmitters; one or more receivers: “Transceiver 1120 having transmitter 1122 and receiver 1124 may be configured to transmit and/or receive time and/or frequency resource partitioning information” (Tseng ¶ 0147); and processing circuitry associated with the one or more transmitters and the one or more receivers: “node 1100 may include transceiver 1120, processor 1126, memory 1128, one or more presentation components 1134, and at least one antenna 1136” (Tseng ¶ 0146), the processing circuitry configured to cause the SL UE to: “memory 1128 may store computer-readable, computer-executable instructions 1132 (e.g., software codes) that are configured to, when executed, cause processor 1126 to perform various functions described herein,” (Tseng ¶ 0150): detect a trigger for sending a Radio Resource Control, RRC, message: “the UE may trigger an RRC Connection Resume procedure after a sidelink Buffer Status Report” (Tseng ¶ 0111); a message comprising information that informs a network about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to one or more SL configurations: “a UE may start an RRC Connection Resume procedure if the sidelink control parameters broadcast in the system information (e.g., by the serving cell), or the UE's own preference for a sidelink operation, has changed. In some of such implementations, the UE may send an RRC Connection Resume Request message which may include a Resume Cause (e.g., SL Operation Modification) to the serving cell . . . The serving cell may configure new sidelink control parameters to the UE based on the received Sidelink Assistance information in some of the present implementations” (Tseng ¶ 0110); and send the RRC information to a network node, wherein the RRC procedure comprises either an SL configuration procedure or an SL configuration update procedure: “This way, the UE may indicate an SL resource allocation request, e.g., in the RRC Resume Request message, to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0106).
Tseng does not teach: the RRC information comprises Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations, the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations
Regarding Claim 29, Rao teaches: the RRC information comprises: “An aspect of the disclosure provides method, at a User Equipment (UE), for obtaining configuration information for one or more Sidelink Radio bearers (SL-RBs) used for sidelink communication. The method includes transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0202) Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows: “the service information includes at least one of: information indicative that the UE is capable of at least one of: unicast, broadcast, and groupcast transmission; an identifier of one or more services supported by the sidelink communication; identifiers of supported services; identifiers of destination UE; identifiers of destination UE group; QoS indicators requirements; and QoS indicators indicative of one or more supported services by the sidelink communication” (Rao ¶ 0202) wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204), the request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204) and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations “In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is the RRC sidelink configuration response. In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is a RRC sidelink reconfiguration message . . . In some embodiments, the configuration information includes QoS class information indicative a set of QoS requirements supported by the one or more SL-RBs. In some embodiments, one or more QoS flows can be mapped to a QoS class” (Rao ¶ 0202).
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 disclosures of Tseng with Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Regarding Claim 31, Tseng teaches: A method implemented in a network node, comprising: receiving a Radio Resource Control, RRC, message from a sidelink, SL, User Equipment, UE: “the connection of the UE 810 with the serving cell 820 (e.g., operated by a serving gNB) is suspended and the UE 810 is performing sidelink operations (e.g., exchanging sidelink packets with other UEs) while the UE is in an RRC Inactive state. Action 880, however, shows that an RRC Connection Resume procedure has been performed successfully and, as a result, the UE transitions to an RRC Connected state” (Tseng ¶ 0109) or in other works the UE must reconnect with the network node [gNB/base station] and the base station is receiving the RRC information; and taking one or more actions based on the RRC information, wherein the RRC procedure comprises either an SL configuration procedure or an SL configuration update procedure: “The serving cell may configure new sidelink control parameters to the UE based on the received Sidelink Assistance information in some of the present implementations” (Tseng ¶ 0110).
Tseng does not teach: the RRC information comprises Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations, the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations
Regarding Claim 33, Rao teaches: the RRC information comprises: “An aspect of the disclosure provides method, at a User Equipment (UE), for obtaining configuration information for one or more Sidelink Radio bearers (SL-RBs) used for sidelink communication. The method includes transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0202) Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows: “the service information includes at least one of: information indicative that the UE is capable of at least one of: unicast, broadcast, and groupcast transmission; an identifier of one or more services supported by the sidelink communication; identifiers of supported services; identifiers of destination UE; identifiers of destination UE group; QoS indicators requirements; and QoS indicators indicative of one or more supported services by the sidelink communication” (Rao ¶ 0202) wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204), the request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204) and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations “In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is the RRC sidelink configuration response. In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is a RRC sidelink reconfiguration message . . . In some embodiments, the configuration information includes QoS class information indicative a set of QoS requirements supported by the one or more SL-RBs. In some embodiments, one or more QoS flows can be mapped to a QoS class” (Rao ¶ 0202).
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 disclosures of Tseng with Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Regarding Claim 33, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 31, wherein: the one or more actions comprise sending a response to the SL UE: “The serving cell 820 may then provide, in action 870, additional (and/or updated) SL resource allocations to the UE by sending an RRC Connection Resume Response message” (Tseng ¶ 0107); and the response comprises the one or more SL-related configurations for the SL UE or one or more updates to the one or more SL-related configurations for the SL UE: “After receiving the RRC Resume Request message, the serving cell may provide more SL resource allocation in the RRC Resume Response message to the UE” (Tseng ¶ 0106).
Regarding Claim 34, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 31, wherein: the RRC information comprises either: the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations: “the UE may send an RRC Connection Resume Request message which may include a Resume Cause (e.g., SL resource allocation request)” (Tseng ¶ 0111); or the message that both requests the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and comprises the information about the one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations.
Regarding Claim 35, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 31, wherein: receiving the RRC information from the SL UE comprises receiving the RRC information from the SL UE while the SL UE is in a connected state: “Additionally, even though some of the implementations described below describe a UE in an RRC Inactive state, the present implementations may equally apply to UEs in other RRC states, such as the RRC Connected state and the RRC Idle state” (Tseng ¶ 0052) and “the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7); and the RRC information comprises existing SL-related RRC information: “in action 860, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell 820, which may include Resume Cause (or an SL resource allocation request” (Tseng ¶ 107); the RRC information comprises existing SL-related RRC information : “the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102).
Regarding Claim 39, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 31, wherein: receiving the RRC information from the SL UE comprises receiving the RRC information from the SL UE while the SL UE is in a connected state: “Instead, the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102 and FIG. 7) and as seen in Tseng FIG. 7 above the UE begins the procedure in an inactive state; and the RRC information comprises new RRC information: “In the example implementations described below, even though several approaches for sidelink radio resource allocation for NR UEs (e.g., NR V2X UEs) are discussed in connection with the SL resource allocation by dedicated RRC signaling” (Tseng ¶ 0052) and “the serving cell 820 may provide a new SL resource allocation [RRC information] to the UE 810 by transmitting, in action 890, a message to the UE that may include the SL resource allocation” (Tseng ¶ 0109) that is one of: common for two or more Radio Access Technologies, RATs, and for SL only: “Additionally, the present implementations may also cover the inter-RAT scenarios and/or intra-RAT scenarios, such as an NR cell configuring NR sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE, an NR cell configuring LTE sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE, an LTE cell configuring NR sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE, an LTE cell configuring LTE sidelink resource allocation configuration to a UE, etc” (Tseng ¶ 0053) wherein the RATs comprise NR and LTE configurations and “in action 860, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell 820, which may include Resume Cause (or an SL resource allocation request” (Tseng ¶ 107).
Regarding Claim 52, Tseng teaches: A base station: “the connection of the UE 810 with the serving cell 820 (e.g., operated by a serving gNB) is suspended and the UE 810 is performing sidelink operations (e.g., exchanging sidelink packets with other UEs) while the UE is in an RRC Inactive state. Action 880, however, shows that an RRC Connection Resume procedure has been performed successfully and, as a result, the UE transitions to an RRC Connected state” (Tseng ¶ 0109) or in other works the UE must reconnect with the network node [gNB/base station] and the base station is receiving the RRC information adapted to: receive a Radio Resource Control, RRC, information from a sidelink, SL, User Equipment, UE: “the UE may send an RRC Connection Resume Request message which may include a Resume Cause (e.g., SL resource allocation request)” (Tseng ¶ 0111) and “The serving cell may then instruct the UE to move to an RRC Connected state to transmit the Sidelink Assistance information (e.g., SidelinkUEInformation) to the serving cell. The serving cell may configure new sidelink control parameters to the UE based on the received Sidelink Assistance information in some of the present implementations” (Tseng ¶ 0106); and taking one or more actions based on the RRC information, wherein the RRC procedure comprises either an SL configuration procedure or an SL configuration update procedure: “The serving cell may configure new sidelink control parameters to the UE based on the received Sidelink Assistance information in some of the present implementations” (Tseng ¶ 0110).
Tseng does not teach: the RRC information comprises Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations, the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations
Regarding Claim 52, Rao teaches: the RRC information comprises: “An aspect of the disclosure provides method, at a User Equipment (UE), for obtaining configuration information for one or more Sidelink Radio bearers (SL-RBs) used for sidelink communication. The method includes transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0202) Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows: “the service information includes at least one of: information indicative that the UE is capable of at least one of: unicast, broadcast, and groupcast transmission; an identifier of one or more services supported by the sidelink communication; identifiers of supported services; identifiers of destination UE; identifiers of destination UE group; QoS indicators requirements; and QoS indicators indicative of one or more supported services by the sidelink communication” (Rao ¶ 0202) wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204), the request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204) and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations “In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is the RRC sidelink configuration response. In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is a RRC sidelink reconfiguration message . . . In some embodiments, the configuration information includes QoS class information indicative a set of QoS requirements supported by the one or more SL-RBs. In some embodiments, one or more QoS flows can be mapped to a QoS class” (Rao ¶ 0202).
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 disclosures of Tseng with Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Regarding Claim 54, Tseng teaches: A base station: “the connection of the UE 810 with the serving cell 820 (e.g., operated by a serving gNB) is suspended and the UE 810 is performing sidelink operations (e.g., exchanging sidelink packets with other UEs) while the UE is in an RRC Inactive state. Action 880, however, shows that an RRC Connection Resume procedure has been performed successfully and, as a result, the UE transitions to an RRC Connected state” (Tseng ¶ 0109) or in other works the UE must reconnect with the network node [gNB/base station] and the base station is receiving the RRC information, comprising processing circuitry configured to cause the base station: “memory 1128 may store computer-readable, computer-executable instructions 1132 (e.g., software codes) that are configured to, when executed, cause processor 1126 to perform various functions described herein,” (Tseng ¶ 0150) to: receive a Radio Resource Control, RRC, message from a sidelink, SL, User Equipment, UE: “the UE may send an RRC Connection Resume Request message which may include a Resume Cause (e.g., SL resource allocation request)” (Tseng ¶ 0111); and taking one or more actions based on the RRC information, wherein the RRC procedure comprises either an SL configuration procedure or an SL configuration update procedure: “The serving cell may configure new sidelink control parameters to the UE based on the received Sidelink Assistance information in some of the present implementations” (Tseng ¶ 0110).
Tseng does not teach: the RRC information comprises Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations, the request for the RRC procedure related to the one or more SL-related configurations and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations
Regarding Claim 54, Rao teaches: the RRC information comprises: “An aspect of the disclosure provides method, at a User Equipment (UE), for obtaining configuration information for one or more Sidelink Radio bearers (SL-RBs) used for sidelink communication. The method includes transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0202) Quality of Service, QoS, flow information comprising an indication of one or more new QoS mappings for one or more QoS flows: “the service information includes at least one of: information indicative that the UE is capable of at least one of: unicast, broadcast, and groupcast transmission; an identifier of one or more services supported by the sidelink communication; identifiers of supported services; identifiers of destination UE; identifiers of destination UE group; QoS indicators requirements; and QoS indicators indicative of one or more supported services by the sidelink communication” (Rao ¶ 0202) wherein the RRC information comprises one of: a request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204), the request for an RRC procedure related to one or more SL-related configurations: “The machine readable instructions are for configuring the UE for: transmitting, to a Radio Access Network (RAN) node, a radio resource control (RRC) sidelink (SL) configuration request, the RRC SL configuration request comprising UE capability information and service information” (Rao ¶ 0204) and an information about one or more changes made by the SL UE related to the one or more SL configurations “In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is the RRC sidelink configuration response. In some embodiments, the message sent by RAN is a RRC sidelink reconfiguration message . . . In some embodiments, the configuration information includes QoS class information indicative a set of QoS requirements supported by the one or more SL-RBs. In some embodiments, one or more QoS flows can be mapped to a QoS class” (Rao ¶ 0202).
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 disclosures of Tseng with Rao to achieve the Predictable result of handling quality of service in advanced V2X sidelink communications. According to Rao: “For supporting more advanced V2X sidelink communication, such as platooning and advanced driving, a more stringent and varied Quality of Service (throughput, latency and reliability) is required that is not satisfied by the prior art. As such, there is a need for efficiently handling the Quality of Service (QoS) of sidelink communications” (Rao ¶ 0003).
Claims 7 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng and Rao as applied to claims 1 and 35 above, and further in view of Muraoka et al. (US 2019/0223231) hereinafter Muraoka.
Regarding Claim 7, Tseng teaches: The method of Claim 1, sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node when in a connected state: “Additionally, even though some of the implementations described below describe a UE in an RRC Inactive state, the present implementations may equally apply to UEs in other RRC states, such as the RRC Connected state and the RRC Idle state” (Tseng ¶ 0052) and “the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102).
Regarding Claim 7, Tseng and Rao do not teach: the RRC information comprises an existing SL-related RRC information, wherein the existing SL-related RRC information comprises a SidelinkUElnformation message.
Regarding Claim 7, Murakoa teaches: the RRC information comprises an existing SL-related RRC information, wherein the existing SL-related RRC information comprises a SidelinkUElnformation message: “Note that, in the existing sidelink discovery Type 2, a UE transmits a Sidelink UE Information message containing “discTxResourceReq” information element (IE) to an eNB in order to request the eNB to allocate a direct discovery radio resource. The Sidelink UE Information message is an RRC message” (Murakoa ¶ 0051).
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Murakoa to achieve the Predictable result of solving an issue wherein multiple discoveree UEs could interfere with a discoverer UE’s attempts to detect the discoveree UEs. According to Murakoa “In view of the above, one object to be attained by embodiments disclosed herein is to provide an apparatus, a method, and a program that contribute to preventing a plurality of D2D communication signals, which are transmitted from multiple wireless terminals to a single wireless terminal, from being transmitted on the same radio resource” (Murakoa ¶ 0026).
Regarding Claim 36, Tseng and Rao do not teach: the existing SL-related RRC information comprises a SidelinkUElnformation message.
Regarding Claim 36, Murakoa teaches: the existing SL-related RRC information comprises a SidelinkUElnformation message: “Note that, in the existing sidelink discovery Type 2, a UE transmits a Sidelink UE Information message containing “discTxResourceReq” information element (IE) to an eNB in order to request the eNB to allocate a direct discovery radio resource. The Sidelink UE Information message is an RRC message” (Murakoa ¶ 0051).
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Murakoa to achieve the Predictable result of solving an issue wherein multiple discoveree UEs could interfere with a discoverer UE’s attempts to detect the discoveree UEs. According to Murakoa “In view of the above, one object to be attained by embodiments disclosed herein is to provide an apparatus, a method, and a program that contribute to preventing a plurality of D2D communication signals, which are transmitted from multiple wireless terminals to a single wireless terminal, from being transmitted on the same radio resource” (Murakoa ¶ 0026).
Claims 9, 37, and 38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng and Rao as applied to claims 1 and 31 above, and further in view of Wei et al. (US 2018/0176834) hereinafter Wei.
Regarding Claim 9, Tseng teaches: The method of Claim 1, sending the RRC information to the network node comprises sending the RRC information to the network node when in a connected state: “Additionally, even though some of the implementations described below describe a UE in an RRC Inactive state, the present implementations may equally apply to UEs in other RRC states, such as the RRC Connected state and the RRC Idle state” (Tseng ¶ 0052) and “the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102).
Regarding Claim 9, Tseng and Rao do not teach: the RRC information comprises an existing New Radio, NR, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, RRC information, wherein the existing NR or LTE RRC information comprises a UEAssistancelnformation message, a ULlnformationTransfer message, or a ULlnformationTransferMRDC message.
Regarding Claim 9, Wei teaches: the RRC information comprises an existing New Radio, NR, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, RRC information, wherein the existing NR or LTE RRC information comprises a UEAssistancelnformation message: “the assistance information of the UE 802 contained in the network transition request (e.g., the RRC Connection Resume or RRC Connection Request message in step 852) may contain a purpose of the RRC connection and a service type of the UE 802” (Wei ¶ 0068), a ULlnformationTransfer message, or a ULlnformationTransferMRDC message.
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Wei to achieve the Predictable result of enabling a UE to move between NR coverage and 4G coverage. According to Wei: “Thus, there is a need in the art for methods to handle user equipment (UE) RRC state transitions as the UE moves from a NR′ coverage area to a 4G wireless network coverage area” (Wei ¶ 0011).
Regarding Claim 37, Tseng teaches: The method of claim 31, wherein: receiving the RRC information from the SL UE comprises receiving the RRC information from the SL UE while the SL UE is in a connected state: “Additionally, even though some of the implementations described below describe a UE in an RRC Inactive state, the present implementations may equally apply to UEs in other RRC states, such as the RRC Connected state and the RRC Idle state” (Tseng ¶ 0052) and “the UE 710 may start performing an RRC Connection Resume procedure with the serving cell in order to receive updated SL resources. As such, the UE 710 may send an RA preamble to the serving cell 720 in action 750. After receiving an RA response from the serving cell 720, in action 760, the UE 710 may transmit, in action 770, an RRC Connection Resume Request message to the serving cell” (Tseng ¶ 0102).
Regarding Claim 37, Tseng and Rao do not teach: the RRC information comprises an existing New Radio, NR, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, RRC information.
Regarding Claim 37, Wei teaches: the RRC information comprises an existing New Radio, NR, or Long Term Evolution, LTE, RRC information: “assistance information of the UE 602, such as the purpose of the RRC connection (e.g., for transitioning to the RRC IDLE state or to the RRC CONNECTION state) and/or the service type of the UE 602 . . . and/or the UE 602's category (e.g., the UE's radio capability, data rate and power class)” (Wei ¶ 0063).
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 disclosure of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Wei to achieve the Predictable result of enabling a UE to move between NR coverage and 4G coverage. According to Wei: “Thus, there is a need in the art for methods to handle user equipment (UE) RRC state transitions as the UE moves from a NR′ coverage area to a 4G wireless network coverage area” (Wei ¶ 0011).
Regarding Claim 38, Wei teaches: The method of claim 37, wherein the existing NR or LTE RRC information comprises a UEAssistancelnformation message: “the assistance information of the UE 802 contained in the network transition request (e.g., the RRC Connection Resume or RRC Connection Request message in step 852) may contain a purpose of the RRC connection and a service type of the UE 802” (Wei ¶ 0068), a ULlnformationTransfer message, or a ULlnformationTransferMRDC message.
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 disclosure of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Wei to achieve the Predictable result of enabling a UE to move between NR coverage and 4G coverage. According to Wei: “Thus, there is a need in the art for methods to handle user equipment (UE) RRC state transitions as the UE moves from a NR′ coverage area to a 4G wireless network coverage area” (Wei ¶ 0011).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng and Rao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang et al. (US 2022/0217575) hereinafter Wang.
Regarding Claim 17, Tseng fails to teach: the RRC information comprises a flag that indicates a request for a new SLRB configuration.
Regarding Claim 17, Wang teaches: the RRC information comprises a flag that indicates a request for a new SLRB configuration: “The V2X service related information, SLRB configuration assistance information and SLRB request information [flag for request of SLRB configuration] sent by the UE to the base station may be sent through sidelink UE information or UE assistance information or a newly defined RRC message. The SLRB configuration information sent by the base station to the UE may be sent through the RRC reconfiguration message” (Wang ¶ 0132).
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Wang to achieve the Predictable result of allowing for reconfiguration of sidelink radio bearers to prevent configuration conflicts between UEs. According to Wang: “The Vehicle to everything (V2X) communication based on New Radio (NR) supports the unicast communication as well as the acknowledged mode (AM) of radio link control (RLC). A user equipment (UE) in the RRC connected state is configured with a sidelink radio bearer by a base station, and a UE in the out-of-coverage state establishes a sidelink radio bearer according to pre-configuration information. When two UEs in sidelink unicast communication are under different base stations, the problem of sidelink radio bearer configuration conflict may occur” (Wang ¶ 0003).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng and Rao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US 2020/0267790) hereinafter Kim’790.
Regarding Claim 18, Tseng and Rao do not teach: the RRC information comprises QoS flow information for one or more QoS flows at the SL UE.
Regarding Claim 18, Kim’790 teaches: the RRC information comprises QoS flow information for one or more QoS flows at the SL UE: “the message may include a Provider Service Identifier (PSID) of a V2X application, or Intelligent Transport System-Application Identifiers (ITS-AIDs), or a QoS rule mapped to an identifier such as new identifiers, or a 5G QoS Indicator (5QI) or a QoS Indicator (VQI), or a QoS Flow Indicator (QFI) based on a QoS parameter. Based on the information, the vehicle UE 1j-01 can determine that it may not be required to send a message including V2X SL UE capability information to the vehicle UE 1j-02” (Kim’790 ¶ 0408).
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Kim’790 to achieve the Predictable result of supporting communication between VtX or M2M devices with LTE communications. According to Kim’790: “there is a need for a method of performing user equipment capability procedure for supporting vehicle communication in a next generation mobile communication system with development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced” (Kim’790 ¶ 0006).
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng and Rao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US 2017/0332419) hereinafter Kim.
Regarding Claim 20, Tseng and Rao do not teach: wherein the RRC information comprises a new SL-related UE context for the SL UE.
Regarding Claim 20, Kim teaches: wherein the RRC information comprises a new SL-related UE context for the SL UE: “The UE configures the RRC connection based on the update UE context and configuration information and transmits a modified RRC connection setup complete message to the target eNB at step 27-85” (Kim ¶ 0272).
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 disclosures of Tseng and Rao with the disclosure of Kim to achieve the Predictable result of assisting with the convergence of IoT and 5G technology. According to Kim: “there are various attempts to apply the IoT to the 5G communication system. For example, the sensor network, Machine to Machine (M2M), and Machine Type Communication (MTC) technologies are implemented by means of the 5G communication technologies such as beamforming, MIMO, and array antenna. The application of the aforementioned cloud RAN as a big data processing technology is an example of convergence between the 5G and IoT technologies” (Kim ¶ 0005).
Conclusion
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/B.D.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/BRADLEY D LYTLE JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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