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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 7 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 7 and 17 recite a mathematic expression. It doesn’t recite how the mathematic expression is utilized in a determining a channel reception occasion method. Further clarification is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6, 10-16, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Huang et al (US 2021/0168762 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 11, Huang teaches a method/aparatus for determining a channel reception occasion, wherein the method comprises:
determining a first time domain resource offset value set, wherein the first time domain resource offset value set comprises a plurality of slot offset values between a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) ([0540], “the first UE transmits the sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook in a slot “nu”. In some examples, the slot “nu” comprises one or more uplink resources. In some examples, the first UE is configured with a set of time offsets (e.g., a set of one or more time offsets comprising one or more k1′ values). In some examples, each time offset (e.g., k1′) of the set of time offsets corresponds to a number of physical slots from a PSFCH slot “nf” to an uplink slot “nu”. In some examples, the first UE derives an association set based upon the set of time offsets. In some examples, the association set may be denoted as “nu -k1′”, wherein k1′ values comprise time offset values in the set of time offsets (e.g., the k1′ values comprise all time offset values configured in the set of time offsets). In an example where the set of time offsets comprise a k1′ value of 3 and a k1′ value of 4, the association set may comprise slots “nu -3” and “nu -4”. In some examples, the association set is associated with the uplink slot “nu”. For example, one or more sidelink HARQ-ACKs received in one or more slots in the association set may be transmitted (by the first UE) in the same uplink slot “n””, and [0538], “Each k1’ value of the set of K1’ value may denote a time offset corresponding to a number of physical slots from a PSFCH slot “nf” to an uplink slot “nu” (e.g., a PUCCH slot)”); and
determining at least one PSFCH reception occasion based on the first time domain resource offset value set and a feedback period of the PSFCH ([0542], “The first number of occasions may be (and/or may be determined and/or derived based upon) a number of slots (e.g., a number of possible slots) comprising one or more PSCCH resources and/or one or more PSSCH resources associated with a slot “nf”, comprising one or more PSFCH resources, which is in an association set (e.g., the association set may correspond to a set of one or more slots “nu -k1′”, and also see [0545], “each set of N (e.g., the periodicity) occasions of the one or more first occasions may be a “PSFCH occasion” (e.g., every Nth occasion of the one or more first occasions may be an “PSFCH occasion”). For example, in a scenario in which the one or more first occasions comprise occasions 1, 2, 3 and 4, and in which N=2, PSFCH occasions of the one or more first occasions may comprise occasions 2 and 4, or PSFCH occasions of the one or more first occasions may comprise occasions 1 and 3”, it’s noted that N is the feedback period of the PSFCH).
Regarding claim 2, 12, Huang further teaches that the determining at least one PSFCH reception occasion based on the first time domain resource offset value set and a feedback period of the PSFCH comprises:
determining, at least one time domain resource as a time domain resource in the at least one PSFCH reception occasion, wherein the at least one time domain resource is in a time domain resource set corresponding to the first time domain resource offset value set ([0542]), and satisfies the feedback period of the PSFCH, and is for sidelink transmission ([0545]).
Regarding claim 3, 13, Huang further teaches that the method further comprises: generating a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based on the at least one PSFCH reception occasion, wherein a size of the HARQ-ACK codebook is related to a quantity of the at least one PSFCH reception occasion ([0539], “a first UE transmits a sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook to a network, wherein a size of the sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook is determined (and/or derived) based upon a first number of occasions. In some examples, the size of the sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook is equal to the first number of occasions”).
Regarding claim 4, 14, Huang further teaches that the time domain resource set corresponding to the first time domain resource offset value set is a set obtained by subtracting each slot offset value in the first time domain resource offset value set from a PUCCH slot n ([0540], “the first UE transmits the sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook in a slot “nu”. In some examples, the slot “nu” comprises one or more uplink resources. In some examples, the first UE is configured with a set of time offsets (e.g., a set of one or more time offsets comprising one or more k1′ values). In some examples, each time offset (e.g., k1′) of the set of time offsets corresponds to a number of physical slots from a PSFCH slot “nf” to an uplink slot “nu”. In some examples, the first UE derives an association set based upon the set of time offsets. In some examples, the association set may be denoted as “nu -k1′”, wherein k1′ values comprise time offset values in the set of time offsets (e.g., the k1′ values comprise all time offset values configured in the set of time offsets”).
Regarding claim 5, 15, Huang further teaches that the determining a first time domain resource offset value set comprises: determining the first time domain resource offset value set based on a configuration of a network device ([0540], “the first UE is configured with a set of time offsets (e.g., a set of one or more time offsets comprising one or more K1’ values”).
Regarding claim 6, 16, Huang further teaches that a quantity of bits of HARQ-ACK information to be fed back in each PSFCH reception occasion is related to one or more of the following parameters: the feedback period of the PSFCH ([0581], “the sidelink HARQ-ACK codebook size is equal to a product of N (such as 1) and a quantity (such as 8) of slots that each comprise a PSFCH region for sidelink HARQ-ACK and that each belong to the sidelink resource pool)”, it’s noted that N correspond to the feedback period of the PSFCH).
Regarding claims 10, 20, Huang further teaches that the HARQ-ACK codebook comprises hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement HARQ-ACK information of a first preconfigured physical sidelink shared channel (CG PSSCH); and wherein at least one of the following is true:
the first CG PSSCH is a CG PSSCH with a highest priority that is in a plurality of CG PSSCHs and through which the HARQ-ACK information is fed back to a network device ([0415]-[[0417], “priority rule is based on at least priority indication in the associated PSCCH/PSSCH”).
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 8-9, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al (US 2021/0168762 A1), in view of Ericsson, “On Fixed HARQ Codebook Design”.
Regarding claim 8, 18, Huang teaches all of the limitations except that a size of the HARQ-ACK codebook is related to one or more of the following parameters: a total quantity of HARQ processes supported by a terminal device and a quantity of bits of HARQ-ACK information generated in each HARQ process.
Ericsson teaches the above limitation (page 2, paragraph 5, “the fixed HARQ codebook size would be determined by the product of configured/specified HARQ processed and number of HARQ feedback bits required in the component carrier dimension”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teaching of Ericsson in the system disclosed by Huang. The benefit for combining would guarantee unique, reliable, and scalable HARQ-ACK feedback for multiple parallel HAQ processes while keeping latency and receiver complexity low.
Regarding claim 9 and 19, the aforementioned references further teach that G-total SLHARQ=P* g_process HARQ-ACK, G-total SLHARQ is the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook, P is the total quantity of HARQ processes supported by the terminaldevice, and g_process HARQ-ACK is the quantity of bits of the HARQ-ACK information generated in each HARQ process (Ericsson, page 2, paragraph 5, “the fixed HARQ codebook size would be determined by the product of configured/specified HARQ processed and number of HARQ feedback bits required in the component carrier dimension”).
Conclusion
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/SIMING LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411