DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 May 07, 2026 has been entered, wherein claims 1,3, 5,6, 8-14, 17-32 are cancelled, claims 2, 4, 7, 15, 16, and 33-35 are pending and ready for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
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 2, 33, and 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwai et. al. (Iwai hereafter) (US 20110299496 A1) in view of Lee et al. (Lee hereafter) (US 20160198508 A1) and in further view of Zhu et al. (Zhu hereafter) (US 20120243496 A1) and Rudolf et al. (Rudolf hereafter) (US 20170230939 A1).
Regarding claim 2 Iwai teaches, an apparatus for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
one or more processors (Iwai; Fig. 4);
one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors (Iwai; Fig. 4); and
instructions stored in the one or more memories and executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to (Iwai; Fig. 4):
receive an indication of a configuration for a bandwidth from a base station ([0047]relationship between the number of clusters and the frequency assignment unit that are applied to a terminal), the bandwidth being divided into a plurality of clusters ([0069]system bandwidth is expressed N.sub.RB [RB], the number of clusters), each cluster comprising a number of resource blocks ([0069] the number of clusters is expressed as N.sub.Cluster, and a frequency assignment unit is expressed as P [RB]) (Iwai; [0047] Frequency assigning parameter setting section 112 maintains information about the relationship between the number of clusters and the frequency assignment unit that are applied to a terminal to which frequency is assigned… maintains a table showing correspondence of a plurality of numbers of clusters and frequency assignment units corresponding to each number of clusters. [0069] where a system bandwidth is expressed N.sub.RB [RB], the number of clusters is expressed as N.sub.Cluster, and a frequency assignment unit is expressed as P [RB].) selectable for data message, each cluster being not adjacent in frequency to another cluster ([0005] Non-contiguous frequency transmission is a method of transmitting a data signal and a reference signal by assigning such signals to non-contiguous frequency bands, which are dispersed in a wide range of band); and
Iwai fails to explicitly teach, transmit, to a second UE, a multi-cluster transmission via two or more clusters of the plurality of clusters based at least in part on the indication of the configuration,
However, in the same field of endeavor Lee teaches, transmit, to a second UE (The relayUE (rUE)…transmitted to the UE), a multi-cluster transmission via two or more clusters of the plurality of clusters (multi-cluster transmission both cluster 1 and cluster 2 may be used for transmission) based at least in part on the indication of the configuration (allocation are performed by the eNB) (Lee; [0092-0094] allocation are performed by the eNB …The relayUE (rUE) may receive an allocated resource before D2D communication with the UE, and corresponding information needs to be transmitted to the UE …[0094] Signaling by the UE may be similar to a case in which resource allocation is performed by the eNB… through a control channel such as a PUCCH, or by being piggybacked on a PUSCH …[0098] Multi-cluster transmission refers to transmission of a maximum of two non-adjacent RB clusters [0101] a separate transmission mode (WAN-D2D Tx) may be newly defined for a case in which multi-cluster transmission may be performed.
Therefore, multi-cluster transmission both cluster 1 and cluster 2 may be used for transmission by the rUE in an SF distinguished by WAN-D2D Tx).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lee in order to support efficient resource allocation for device-to-device (D2D) communication (Lee; [0005]).
Iwai-Lee fails to explicitly teach, wherein the multi-cluster transmission comprises a control message and a data message
However, in the same field of endeavor Zhu teaches, wherein the multi-cluster transmission (indicating allocation of resource for two clusters) comprises a scheduling assignment (each uplink scheduling grant) and a data message (occupied by the PUSCH) (Zhu; [0031] … wherein each uplink scheduling grant signaling indicates an allocation of resource for one or two clusters occupied by the PUSCH; [0035] the base station configuring two uplink scheduling grant signaling indicating allocation of resource for two clusters respectively, [0046].).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee to include the above recited limitations as taught by Zhu in order to ensure reliability of transmission (Zhu; [0104]).
Iwai-Lee-Zhu fails to explicitly teach transmit, to a second UE, a scheduling assignment (SA) message for the data message, the SA message comprising an indication of multiple clusters in the plurality of clusters for the data message
transmit, to the second UE, the data message using the multiple clusters
However, in the same field of endeavor Rudolf teaches, transmit, to a second UE, a scheduling assignment (SA) message for the data message (carry the SAs to accompany D2D data transmissions), the SA message comprising an indication of multiple clusters in the plurality of clusters for the data message (sub-frame L1 = 1 for the SAs per SA pool (cluster) per scheduling period of P = 160ms.) (Rudolf; [0102] there are N = 2 different sets of SA and their M = 2 corresponding D2D data pools. The 2 different SA pools (groupings) are defined over different and/or distinct subframe subsets in time-domain. In figure 2, there is a sub-frame L1 = 1 for the SAs per SA pool (cluster) per scheduling period of P = 160ms. The two D2D data groupings can be defined through distinct and/or different subframe subsets. In figure 2, there are L2 = 18 subframes available per grouping of D2D data per scheduling period. [0103] An SA pool (cluster) (e.g., such as the first SA pool (cluster) in Figure 2) may carry the SAs to accompany D2D data transmissions (e.g., high-priority D2D data transmissions) in the D2D data pool (cluster) (e.g., the first grouping of D2D data) over a scheduling period. High priority transmissions may correspond to a talk responder group (e.g., the responder's first talk group) and/or a high priority voice channel. An SA cluster (e.g., such as the second SA pool (cluster) in Figure 2) may carry the SAs for corresponding lower priority D2D transmissions in a D2D data pool (cluster) (See fig. 2) ([0096-0100]);
transmit, to the second UE, the data message using the multiple clusters (Rudolf; [0108] The SA pool (e.g., first SA pool in FIG. 3) may carry SAs for accompanying high priority D2D data transmissions. The SA pool (e.g., second SA pool in FIG. 3) may carry SAs for accompanying lower priority D2D transmissions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu to include the above recited limitations as taught by Rudolf in order to enhance efficiency of wireless transmissions (Rudolf; [0096]).
Regarding claim 34 Iwai teaches, A method for wireless communication performed at a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving an indication of a configuration for a bandwidth from a base station ([0047]relationship between the number of clusters and the frequency assignment unit that are applied to a terminal), the bandwidth being divided into a plurality of clusters ([0069]system bandwidth is expressed N.sub.RB [RB], the number of clusters), each cluster comprising a number of resource blocks ([0069] the number of clusters is expressed as N.sub.Cluster, and a frequency assignment unit is expressed as P [RB]) (Iwai; [0047] Frequency assigning parameter setting section 112 maintains information about the relationship between the number of clusters and the frequency assignment unit that are applied to a terminal to which frequency is assigned… maintains a table showing correspondence of a plurality of numbers of clusters and frequency assignment units corresponding to each number of clusters. [0069] where a system bandwidth is expressed N.sub.RB [RB], the number of clusters is expressed as N.sub.Cluster, and a frequency assignment unit is expressed as P [RB].) selectable for data message, each cluster being not adjacent in frequency to another cluster ([0005] Non-contiguous frequency transmission is a method of transmitting a data signal and a reference signal by assigning such signals to non-contiguous frequency bands, which are dispersed in a wide range of band); and
Iwai fails to explicitly teach, transmitting, to a second UE, a multi-cluster transmission via two or more clusters of the plurality of clusters based at least in part on the indication of the configuration,
However, in the same field of endeavor Lee teaches, transmit, to a second UE (The relayUE (rUE)…transmitted to the UE), a multi-cluster transmission via two or more clusters of the plurality of clusters (multi-cluster transmission both cluster 1 and cluster 2 may be used for transmission) based at least in part on the indication of the configuration (allocation are performed by the eNB) (Lee; [0092-0094] allocation are performed by the eNB …The relayUE (rUE) may receive an allocated resource before D2D communication with the UE, and corresponding information needs to be transmitted to the UE …[0094] Signaling by the UE may be similar to a case in which resource allocation is performed by the eNB… through a control channel such as a PUCCH, or by being piggybacked on a PUSCH …[0098] Multi-cluster transmission refers to transmission of a maximum of two non-adjacent RB clusters [0101] a separate transmission mode (WAN-D2D Tx) may be newly defined for a case in which multi-cluster transmission may be performed.
Therefore, multi-cluster transmission both cluster 1 and cluster 2 may be used for transmission by the rUE in an SF distinguished by WAN-D2D Tx).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lee in order to support efficient resource allocation for device-to-device (D2D) communication (Lee; [0005]).
Iwai-Lee fails to explicitly teach, wherein the multi-cluster transmission comprises a control message and a data message
However, in the same field of endeavor Zhu teaches, wherein the multi-cluster transmission (indicating allocation of resource for two clusters) comprises a scheduling assignment (each uplink scheduling grant) and a data message (occupied by the PUSCH) (Zhu; [0031] … wherein each uplink scheduling grant signaling indicates an allocation of resource for one or two clusters occupied by the PUSCH; [0035] the base station configuring two uplink scheduling grant signaling indicating allocation of resource for two clusters respectively, [0046], [0053].).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee to include the above recited limitations as taught by Zhu in order to ensure reliability of transmission (Zhu; [0104]).
Iwai-Lee-Zhu fails to explicitly teach transmit, to a second UE, a scheduling assignment (SA) message for the data message, the SA message comprising an indication of multiple clusters in the plurality of clusters for the data message
transmit, to the second UE, the data message using the multiple clusters
However, in the same field of endeavor Rudolf teaches, transmit, to a second UE, a scheduling assignment (SA) message for the data message (carry the SAs to accompany D2D data transmissions), the SA message comprising an indication of multiple clusters in the plurality of clusters for the data message (sub-frame L1 = 1 for the SAs per SA pool (cluster) per scheduling period of P = 160ms) (Rudolf; [0102] there are N = 2 different sets of SA and their M = 2 corresponding
D2D data pools. The 2 different SA pools (groupings) are defined over different and/or distinct subframe subsets in time-domain. In figure 2, there is a sub-frame L1 = 1 for the SAs per SA pool (cluster) per scheduling period of P = 160ms. The two D2D data groupings can be defined through distinct and/or different subframe subsets. In figure 2, there are L2 = 18 subframes available per grouping of D2D data per scheduling period. [0103] An SA pool (cluster) (e.g., such as the first SA pool (cluster) in Figure 2) may carry the SAs to accompany D2D data transmissions (e.g., high-priority D2D data transmissions) in the D2D data pool (cluster) (e.g., the first grouping of D2D data) over a scheduling period. High priority transmissions may correspond to a talk responder group (e.g., the responder's first talk group) and/or a high priority voice channel. An SA cluster (e.g., such as the second SA pool (cluster) in Figure 2) may carry the SAs for corresponding lower priority D2D transmissions in a D2D data pool (cluster) (See fig. 2) ([0096-0100]);
transmit, to the second UE, the data message using the multiple clusters (Rudolf; [0108] The SA pool (e.g., first SA pool in FIG. 3) may carry SAs for accompanying high priority D2D data transmissions. The SA pool (e.g., second SA pool in FIG. 3) may carry SAs for accompanying lower priority D2D transmissions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu to include the above recited limitations as taught by Rudolf in order to enhance efficiency of wireless transmissions (Rudolf; [0096]).
Regarding claim 33 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, the claims 2,
Zhu further teaches, the SA message and the data message share a cluster
(Zhu; [0104] when allocating resource for the PUSCH by using a non-consecutive resource allocation mode, the base station configures at least one uplink scheduling grant signaling according to the number of the clusters occupied by the PUSCH, wherein each uplink scheduling grant signaling indicates allocation of resource for one or two clusters occupied by the PUSCH; and sends to the scheduled user equipment).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Zhu in order to ensure reliability of transmission (Zhu; [0104]).
Claims 4, 7, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Lei et al. (Lei hereafter) (US 20180359777 A1).
Regarding claim 4 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, The apparatus of claim 2,
Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf fails to explicitly teach, wherein, to receive the indication of the configuration, the instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive radio resource control (RRC) signaling that indicates the configuration for the bandwidth
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei teaches, wherein, to receive the indication of the configuration, the instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive radio resource control (RRC) signaling that indicates the configuration for the bandwidth (Lei; [0169] The concrete number of PRBs for SA and its associated data in one TRU may be derived from the available bandwidth for V2X, may be configured by RRC signaling).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei in order to avoid collision (Lei; [0164]).
Regarding claim 7 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, The apparatus of claim 2,
Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf fails to explicitly teach, wherein a first cluster and a second cluster of the clusters are adjacent in frequency
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei teaches, wherein: a first cluster and a second cluster of the clusters are adjacent in frequency (Lei; [0165] The TRUs 402, 416, 424 are transmitted in one subframe 404 and are contiguous in the frequency domain the second and third frequency resources 408, 410 may be contiguous in frequency).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei in order to avoid collision (Lei; [0164]).
Regarding claim 15 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, The apparatus of claim 2,
Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf fails to explicitly teach, wherein, to receive the indication of the configuration, the instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive, from a network entity associated with a cellular communication network, dedicated signaling
or
a system information block (SIB) that indicates the configuration for the bandwidth
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei teaches, wherein, to receive the indication of the configuration, the instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive, from a network entity associated with a cellular communication network, dedicated signaling (lei; [0151] the wireless communication system 100 is compliant with the LTE. [0172] The predetermined threshold may be defined in a specification, preconfigured in the remote unit 102, or configured by RRC signaling. Moreover, the concrete bandwidth of the detection bandwidth in each TRU 402, 416, 424 may be configured by RRC signaling).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei in order to avoid collision (Lei; [0164]).
{Office’s Note: Because of the alternative claim language such as “either...or”, only one of the alternative limitations has been analyzed by the examiner}
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Xiong et al. (Xiong hereafter) (US20180063820 A1).
Regarding claim 16 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, The apparatus of claim 2,
Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf fails to explicitly teach, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: select a number of clusters to use for the multi-cluster transmission.
However, in the same field of endeavor Xiong teaches, wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: select a number of clusters to use for the multi-cluster transmission the multiple clusters in the plurality of clusters for the data message. (Xiong; [0063] In 3GPP LTE release 10, multi-cluster transmissions of up to two clusters on a single component carrier have been adopted for uplink transmissions)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Xiong in order to improve frequency-selective scheduling gain (Xiong; [0063]).
Claim 35 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Noh et al. (Noh hereafter) (US 20130121278 A1).
Regarding claim 35 Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf teaches, the claim 2,
Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf fails to explicitly teach, the plurality of clusters having equal number of RBs.
However, in the same field of endeavor Noh teaches, the plurality of clusters having equal number of RBs. ([0125] In case of FIG. 13, two distributed clusters are allocated to uplink resources. Hereinafter, a cluster is defined as one aggregated part when the uplink resources are allocated in a distributed manner. In FIG. 13, N.sub.RB.sup.UL=50 when an uplink system bandwidth is 10 MHz. It is assumed that one RBG includes 4 RBs. A 1.sup.st cluster can be selected as a part of an RBG 1 to an RBG 10 in that order. A 2.sup.nd cluster can be selected as a part of the RBG 1 to the RBG 10 in the reverse order. The 1.sup.st cluster and the 2.sup.nd cluster do not overlap with each other.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Iwai-Lee-Zhu-Rudolf to include the above recited limitations as taught by Noh in order to allocate distributed uplink resource (Noh; [0104]).
Conclusion
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/W. T/ Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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