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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/05/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Claims 1, 16 have been amended.
Claims 1, 3-9, 16, and 18-24 are presently pending.
1. Applicant's arguments with respect to the claim(s) have been considered but are moot in view
of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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 1, 3-9, 16, 18-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over RAO et al. (US 2019/0239112, hereinafter, “RAO”) in view of Blasco Serrano et al. (US 20240276595, hereinafter, “Blasco”), and further in view of LENG et al. (US 20250023699, hereinafter, “LENG”) and ADJAKPLE et al. (US 20210153065, hereinafter, “ADJAKPLE”).
Claim 1. RAO teaches: An apparatus for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE), comprising: - See Fig. 20, (Tx UE)
a memory; - See Fig.1, (memory) & ¶ [0048] and
one or more processors, coupled to the memory, configured to: - See Fig.1, (processor) & ¶ [0048], (“the electronic device 102…may be classified as a User Equipment (UE)”)
transmit, to a second UE, duplicated transmissions of the sidelink transmission on a plurality of component carriers - See Fig.20, ¶ [0177], (Tx UE enables PD (packet duplication) at PDCP and performs transmission of duplicated packets to Rx UE over multiple sidelink CCs (component carriers) to satisfy the reliability requirement) based at least in part on a cast type associated with the sidelink transmission - in ¶ [0089], (“Different types of SL-RBs may be configured by RRC on the basis of i) a connection type (i.e. transmission type such as unicast, groupcast or broadcast associated with certain L2 (source, destination) ID)”); ¶ [0202], (“the configuration information includes connection type information indicative of a connection type supported by the at least one destination UE, the connection type comprising one of unicast, groupcast or broadcast transmission.”, Sidelink transmission is performed based on the supported connection type (unicast, groupcast or broadcast), involving destination UEs) and
one or more Tx profiles of the plurality of Tx profiles, wherein the duplicated transmissions are associated with the plurality of component carriers associated with the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission. - in ¶ [0088 - 0089], (“For a given SL-RB, there can be one primary CC and a number of secondary CCs.”, “Different types of SL-RBs may be configured by RRC on the basis of i) a connection type (i.e. transmission type such as unicast, groupcast or broadcast associated with certain L2 (source, destination) ID)”)
RAO does not explicitly teach:
provide, from an upper layer of the first UE to an access stratum (AS) layer of the first UE, a plurality of transmitting (Tx) profiles associated with a layer 2 (L2) destination identifier (ID) of a sidelink transmission, wherein:
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates supporting or not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation for the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission; and each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates one or more frequencies associated with a service type based at least in part on a respective mapping between a supported carrier and the service type associated to the L2 destination ID; and
one or more Tx profiles of the plurality of Tx profiles, wherein the duplicated transmissions are associated with the plurality of component carriers associated with the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission.
However, Blasco teaches:
provide, from an upper layer of the first UE to an access stratum (AS) layer of the first UE, a plurality of transmitting (Tx) profiles - See Fig. 2, 4, 21, ¶ [0011], (“the service type is at least one of: Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)…the multiple associated TX profiles comprises at least one of: one or more TX profiles indicated by an upper layer to an access stratum (AS) layer at the UE;”); See TABLE 23.14.1.1 associated with a layer 2 (L2) destination identifier (ID) - in ¶ [0010], (“each of the multiple associated TX profiles indicates at least one of…one or more service types…one or more L2 destination IDs;”) of a sidelink transmission, wherein: - See Fig. 4, ¶ [0011], (“a service type of the SL communication is mapped to at least one of the multiple TX profiles.”)
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates supporting or not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation for the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission; and each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates one or more frequencies associated with a service type based at least in part on a respective mapping between a supported carrier and the service type associated to the L2 destination ID; - in ¶ [1062 - 1063], (“A service is associated with a service type, which can be mapped to a TX profile…Since a service type is also mapped to a Destination Layer-2 ID, each Destination Layer-2 ID can be associated with a TX profile.”); ¶ [0386], TABLE 3.1, (“The following information for V2X communications…The mapping of Destination Layer-2 ID(s) and the V2X services, e.g. PSIDs, ITS-AIDs or AIDs of the V2X application. NOTE 2: PLMN operators coordinate to make sure Destination Layer-2 ID(s) for different V2X services are configured in a consistent manner…The mapping of service types (e.g. PSIDs, ITS-AIDs or AIDs) to Tx Profiles…”) and
one or more Tx profiles of the plurality of Tx profiles, wherein the duplicated transmissions are associated with the plurality of component carriers associated with the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission. - in ¶ [0010], (“each of the multiple associated TX profiles indicates at least…one or more L2 destination IDs”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified RAO with Blasco to include the upper layer of the first UE transmits multiple Tx profiles associated with a destination ID, as taught by Blasco. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sidelink communication, as suggested by Blasco, methods capable of improving sidelink communication performance based on sidelink features supported and/or applied by terminal devices. - ¶ [0111]
Combination of RAO and Blasco does not explicitly teach:
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates supporting or not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation for the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission; and
However, LENG teaches:
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates supporting or not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation – See Fig. 1, ¶ [0093], (“The Tx profile indicates whether the terminal supports some characteristics…the Tx profile indicates whether multi-carrier sidelink communication is supported…the Tx profile indicates that the candidate carrier 1 (e.g., the R16/17 carrier) corresponding to the multi-carrier communication is not supported, or the Tx profile indicates that the candidate carrier 2 (e.g., the R18 carrier) corresponding to the multi-carrier communication is supported. In the case that the Tx profile of the first terminal does not support the multi-carrier communication…”) for the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission; - in ¶ [0082], (“The attribute of the sidelink includes at least one of a service type, an application type, a layer 2 ID, a Tx profile, a data transmission type,”) and
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified RAO and Blasco with LENG to include Tx profile indicates supporting or not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation, as taught by LENG. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sidelink transmission performance, as suggested by LENG, at least two carriers may be used for CA, such that the data transmission performance on the sidelink is improved, and the transmission performance of the sidelink communication system is enhanced. - ¶ [0079]
Combination of RAO, Blasco, and LENG does not explicitly teach:
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicates one or more frequencies associated with a service type based at least in part on a respective mapping between a supported carrier and the service type associated to the L2 destination ID;
However, ADJAKPLE teaches:
each Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, - in ¶ [0228], (“an NR V2X MO may comprise the following V2X configuration parameters…¶ [0235] List of allowed transmission profiles for each authorized V2X service”) indicates one or more frequencies associated with a service type - in ¶ [0264], (“The transmission profile may include NR specific V2X transmission parameters such as…allowed V2X transmission frequencies.”); ¶ [0272], (“One or more frequencies in the list of allowed carrier frequencies for one or more authorized V2X services”) based at least in part on a respective mapping between a supported carrier – See Fig. 3, ¶ [0228], (“configuration parameters…¶ [0236] List of allowed carrier frequencies for each authorized V2X services”); ¶ [0118], (“The mapping between V2X service types and V2X frequencies;”); ¶ [0129], (“The UE may derive the frequency in which a V2X service is to be transmitted, from the mapping between V2X service types and V2X frequencies.”) and the service type associated to the L2 destination ID; - in ¶ [0119], (“The mapping of Destination Layer-2 ID(s) and the V2X services, e.g., PSID or ITS-AIDs of the V2X application”) and
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified RAO, Blasco, and LENG with ADJAKPLE to include each Tx profile indicates frequencies associated with a service type based on a mapping between a supported carrier and the service type associated to the L2 destination ID, as taught by ADJAKPLE. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to result in efficient use of radio resources, as suggested by ADJAKPLE, Vehicle-to-X Communication (V2X) applications advance, use cases demanding greater amounts of resources are being supported. - ¶ [0002]
Claim 3. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the cast type is a groupcast or a broadcast, and wherein the L2 destination ID of the sidelink transmission is of the groupcast or the broadcast. - in ¶ [0089], ("Different types of SL-RBs may be configured by RRC on the basis of i) a connection type (i.e. transmission type such as unicast, groupcast or broadcast associated with certain L2 (source, destination) ID”)
Claim 4. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, from a network node or a special UE, - See Fig. 2 a configuration that configures a list of sidelink component carriers for the sidelink transmission associated to the L2 destination ID, - in ¶ [0088 - 0089], (“Different types of SL-RBs may be configured by RRC on the basis of i) a connection type (i.e. transmission type such as unicast, groupcast or broadcast assoc3iated with certain L2 (source, destination) ID)”) wherein the plurality of component carriers are derived from the list of sidelink component carriers. - in ¶ [0103], ("Given a V2X service and a CC selection duration, the list of supported CCs (or channels) is obtained from the upper layers”)
Claim 5. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO further teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine to duplicate the sidelink transmission on the plurality of component carriers based at least in part on at least one Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicating not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation. - in ¶ [0114], (“Packet duplication can be performed on sidelink transmissions to ensure certain V2X services…satisfy the high reliability and low latency requirements…SL-RBs configured with multiple CCs (e.g. SL-RB ID 1 to 3) can support PD”)
LENG further teaches:
determine to duplicate the sidelink transmission on the plurality of component carriers based at least in part on at least one Tx profile, of the plurality of Tx profiles, indicating not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation. - in ¶ [0093], (“The Tx profile indicates whether the terminal supports some characteristics…whether multi-carrier sidelink communication is supported…the Tx profile indicates that the candidate carrier 1 (e.g., the R16/17 carrier) corresponding to the multi-carrier communication is not supported, or the Tx profile indicates that the candidate carrier 2 (e.g., the R18 carrier) corresponding to the multi-carrier communication is supported…”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified RAO and Blasco with LENG to include Tx profile indicating not supporting sidelink carrier aggregation, as taught by LENG. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sidelink communication, as suggested by LENG, the data transmission performance on the sidelink is improved, and the transmission performance of the sidelink communication system is enhanced. - ¶ [0079]
Claim 6. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the one or more processors, to transmit the duplicated transmissions of the sidelink transmission, are configured to transmit a duplication indication that indicates a presence of the duplicated transmissions. - in ¶ [0159], ("it is necessary for the Tx UE to indicate to the Rx UE the activation status of PD and the CCs used on the configured SL-RB'", duplication indication)
Claim 7. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the duplicated transmissions of the sidelink transmission are based at least in part on duplicated medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (PDUs), - in ¶ [0093], (“At the PDCP layer, after undergoing through functions such as…packet duplication, each PDCP PDU may carry a logical channel ID (LCID) in the packet header.”, PDUs being transmitted on the sidelink are duplicated) wherein the duplicated MAC PDUs are associated with the plurality of component carriers associated to the L2 destination ID, - in ¶ [0093], (“The LCID may either reuse the same indicators (e.g. source L2 ID, destination L2 ID, QFI) provided by upper layers or use a different set of identifiers”, duplicated PDUs are associated with destination L2 ID); ¶ [0118], (“For a given protocol data unit (PDU) with PPPP index i, the selection of CCs for PD is performed by selecting the best k CCs out of the n available candidate CCs.”, multiple CCs (component carriers)) and wherein a duplication indication associated with the duplicated transmissions is in a MAC header of the duplicated transmissions. - See Fig. 20, ¶ [0159], (“Since the enforcement of PD decision is made in the Tx UE, it is necessary for the Tx UE to indicate to the Rx UE the activation status of PD and the CCs used on the configured SL-RB.”); ¶ [0160], (“the Tx UE may use the individual PD indicator MAC CEs received from all Rx UEs or a subset of Rx UEs in the group to determine the decision to activate/deactivate PD”, MAC header contains the duplication indication)
Claim 8. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the duplicated transmissions of the sidelink transmission are based at least in part on duplicated packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) packets, - in ¶ [0157 - 0159], (“Tx UE enables PD at PDCP and performs transmission of duplicated packets to Rx UE over multiple sidelink CCs”, Tx UE is performing packet duplication at the PDCP layer) wherein the duplicated PDCP packets are for a plurality of logical channels mapped with the plurality of component carriers associated to the L2 destination ID, - in ¶ [0158], (“the Tx UE and Rx UE can perform the internal mapping between the SL-RBs and logical channels over multiple CCs.”); ¶ [0093], (“At the PDCP layer…The LCID may either reuse the same indicators (e.g. source L2 ID, destination L2 ID, QFI) provided by upper layers or use a different set of identifiers”) and wherein a duplication indication associated with the duplicated transmissions is in a PDCP header of the duplicated transmissions. – See Fig. 4, ¶ [0159], (“Since the enforcement of PD decision is made in the Tx UE, it is necessary for the Tx UE to indicate to the Rx UE the activation status of PD and the CCs used on the configured SL-RB.”); ¶ [0095], (“These QoS indicators may be included within the LCID or as a separate indicator/flag in the PDCP PDU header.”, indication in the PDCP header)
Claim 9. Combination of RAO, Blasco, LENG, and ADJAKPLE teaches The apparatus of claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
RAO teaches:
wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
receive, from the second UE, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback based at least in part on the duplicated transmissions of the sidelink transmission; - See Fig.20, ¶ [0177], (Tx UE enables PD (packet duplication) at PDCP and performs transmission of duplicated packets to Rx UE over multiple sidelink CCs (component carriers) to satisfy the reliability requirement); ¶ [0063], (“the present invention may provide one or more of the following benefits…[0067] Addresses issues related to HARQ which results in high latency even when reliability requirements can be satisfied using existing retransmission techniques for sidelink transmissions.”) and retransmit, to the second UE, the sidelink transmission on a component carrier, of the plurality of component carriers, based at least in part on the HARQ feedback. – in ¶ [0063], (“the present invention may provide one or more of the following benefits…[0067] Addresses issues related to HARQ which results in high latency even when reliability requirements can be satisfied using existing retransmission techniques for sidelink transmissions.”)
Claim 16 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 1 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 18-24 are rejected under the same rationale as Claims 3-9 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Conclusion
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/SHIMA WASEL/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475