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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 16, 21 and 26 have been fully considered, a new ground for rejection has been made in view of amendment. Claims 16, 21 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 (See 103 rejection of claims 16, 21 and 26 below).
Claim Objections
Claim 16 and 26 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 16, line 7, “another UE” should read “the another UE”.
In claim 26, line 8, “another UE” should read “the another UE”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 16-17, 20-22, 25-27 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding claim 16, the claim recites “so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception.” The applicant listed paragraphs [0090] to [0093], [0110] to [0112] and [0125] to [0127] in the originally filed specification as support of this limitation. The examiner carefully reviewed these paragraphs and could not find support of this limitation. Specifically [0090] to [0093] discusses NR in general including eMBB, mMTC and URLLC, SCS and slot; [0110] to [0112] discusses resource allocation; [0125] to [0127] discusses dual connectivity, base stations and UEs. Claims 21 and 26 recite similar limitation, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Claims 17 and 20, 22 and 25, 27 and 30 rejected due to their dependency on claims 16, 21 and 26 respectively.
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.
Claim(s) 16, 20-21, 25-26 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20190174411 A1 (hereinafter Xu), in view of US 20230156602 A1 (hereinafter Park), and US 20210267008 A1 by Dutta et al. (hereinafter Dutta) (priority document us-provisional-application US 62979985 hereinafter prov).
Regarding claim 26, Xu teaches A user equipment (UE) performing sidelink communication, the
UE comprising (Xu UE: Fig. 1, Remote UE, Fig. 5, Remote network node, [0042] the relay UE and the remote UE are examples of the relay network node and the remote network node, respectively. Fig. 20 [0183] FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 900.):
a receiver configured to receive sidelink discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration information from another UE (Xu [0183] The smartphone 900 includes ...a radio communication interface 912. [0192] In the smartphone 900 illustrated in FIG. 20, the transceiving unit 203 described with reference to FIG. 6 may be implemented by the radio communication interface 912. Fig. 5, [0057] relay network node transmits the SL-DRX configuration to the remote network node. Note: remote network node = UE, relay network node = another UE.
[0046]the configuration of SL-DRX may include timers as follows: a SLDRX-onDurationTimer for indicating the number of continuous PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to detect the PSCCH after the network node wakes up from the sleep state; a SLDRX-InactivityTimer for indicating the maximum number of PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to wait for successfully decoding of the PSCCH: a SLDRX-Cycle for indicating the number of sub-frames included in one SL-DRX cycle; and a SLDRX-StartOffset for indicating a sub-frame position where each SL-DRX cycle starts. ); and
a controller configured to configure a sidelink DRX parameter using the sidelink DRX configuration information (Xu [0183] The smartphone 900 includes a processor 901.
[0007]an electronic apparatus for a network node is provided which includes processing circuitry configured to: with respect to a sidelink between the network node and one or more other network nodes, configure discontinuous reception SL-DRX for the network node and/or the one or more other network nodes.
[0047] FIG. 4 shows a diagram of an example of a relationship between the above respective timers. Where the gray-filled block corresponds to the SLDRX-onDurationTimer. After the network node wakes up from the sleep state, it detects the PSCCH within the continuous PSCCH sub-frames represented by the gray part. If no PSCCH is successfully decoded until the SLDRX-onDurationTimer times out (two sub-frames in the example of FIG. 4), the network node turns to the sleep state.),
wherein the receiver further receives a sidelink command media access control (MAC) control element (CE) from another UE (Xu [0068] the transceiving unit 203 may be further configured to transmit control information instructing another network node to enter the SL-DRX sleep state to the other network node, or receive the control information from the other network node.
[0069] the control information can be represented by a MAC PDU sub-header carrying LCID. Specifically, a command element SLDRX Command MAC CE may be newly added, and the LCID corresponding to the SLDRX Command MAC CE is represented on the SL-SCH as shown in Table 1 below. It can be seen that the SLDRX Command MAC CE has a fixed length of 5 bits.
TABLE 1
Index Value of LCID
11011 SL-DRX command ),
wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes one or more of a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, Xu [0046] the configuration of SL-DRX may include timers as follows: a SLDRX-onDurationTimer for indicating the number of continuous PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to detect the PSCCH after the network node wakes up from the sleep state; a SLDRX-InactivityTimer for indicating the maximum number of PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to wait for successfully decoding of the PSCCH: a SLDRX-Cycle for indicating the number of sub-frames included in one SL-DRX cycle; and a SLDRX-StartOffset for indicating a sub-frame position where each SL-DRX cycle starts.),
Although Xu teaches wherein the controller controls PSCCH transmission or reception not to be performed based on the sidelink command MAC CE (Xu [0070] when the network node receives the SLDRX Command MAC CE with the value “11011”, it can enter the SL-DRX sleep state, as shown in FIG. 4.
[0043] In the case that a sidelink is established between the relay network node and the remote network node, when the two perform relay communication, a PSCCH (physical sidelink control channel) will be transmitted to the counterpart, or a PSCCH will be received from the counterpart. However, if the relay network node and the remote network node always detect the PSCCH on the sidelink, it will consume too much power. Therefore, in the present embodiment, with respect to the sidelink, a DRX is configured for the relay network node and the remote network node, which is called SL-DRX. Thus, the purpose of power saving is achieved by intermittently stopping detection of the PSCCH. For example, the determining unit 101 may determine an active time for the relay network node and/or the remote network node to detect the PSCCH and a sleep time for the relay network node and/or the remote network node not to detect the PSCCH. ), Xu does not explicitly teach stopping the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished for sidelink transmission and reception, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception.
Park in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches stopping the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE, (Park [0168] the sidelink DRX command MAC CE may be a sidelink MAC CE used for stopping a timer related to a currently SL DRX operation and transiting to a sleep mode.
[0169] the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-inactivity timer and transit to a sleep mode. the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-onduration timer and transit to a sleep mode.),
wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer (Park [0197] sidelink DRX HARQ RTT timer.)
so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception (Park [0139] SL MODE 2 may refer to a resource allocation method or a communication method in which a UE independently selects SL transmission resource(s) in a resource pool pre-configured or configured from a base station or a network.
[0156] the UE may operate based on the following sidelink DRX configuration.
[0157] For example, SL drx-onDurationTimer may be a parameter for the duration at the beginning of a DRX cycle. For example, the beginning of the DRX cycle may be a parameter for the duration in which the UE operates in an active mode to receive sidelink data.
[0159] For example, SL drx-InactivityTimer may be a parameter for the duration after the PSCCH occasion in which a PSCCH indicates a new sidelink transmission and reception for the MAC entity. for example, if the receiving UE is indicated through PSCCH reception that the transmitting UE transmits PSSCH, the receiving UE may operate in an active mode while SL drx-InactivityTimer is running, and the receiving UE can receive PSSCH from the transmitting UE.
[0196] the sidelink DRX inactivity timer may be a timer related to the duration for extending the sidelink DRX onduration period. For example, the sidelink DRX duration period may be the duration in which the receiving UE performing the sidelink DRX operation should basically operate in an active time in order to receive PSCCH/PSSCH from the transmitting UE. for example, if the receiving UE receives a new packet (e.g., new PSSCH) from the transmitting UE, the receiving UE may extend the sidelink DRX onduration timer by starting the sidelink DRX inactivity timer.
[0169] the receiving UE may perform the sidelink DRX operation. the receiving UE may determine whether the received PSSCH is the last sidelink data, based on the field value indicating/representing whether sidelink data is the last sidelink data in the PSCCH (e.g., SCI) or the field value indicating/representing whether sidelink data is the last sidelink data in the PSSCH (e.g., sidelink MAC subheader) received from the transmitting UE. the receiving UE may not remain in an active mode in the remaining on-duration period of sidelink DRX, and the receiving UE may transit to an early sleep mode. if an SL DRX-onduration timer of the receiving UE is running, the receiving UE may stop the remaining SL DRX-onduration timer immediately after transmitting SL HARQ ACK for the last sidelink data to the transmitting UE. That is, the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-onduration timer and transit to a sleep mode.).
By modifying Xu’s teachings of wherein the controller controls PSCCH transmission or reception not to be performed based on the sidelink command MAC CE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes one or more of a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, a sidelink slot offset, and information indicating a slot where a sidelink DRX cycle starts with Park’s teachings of stopping the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception, the modification results in
wherein the controller controls PSCCH transmission or reception not to be performed by stopping the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes one or more of a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, a sidelink slot offset, and information indicating a slot where a sidelink DRX cycle starts, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xu with Park’s above teachings. The motivation is reducing power consumption (Park [0170]).
Xu in view of Park does not explicitly teach wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished for sidelink transmission and reception.
Dutta in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished to differ from each other for sidelink transmission and reception (Dutta, Fig. 2 shows DTX (discontinuous transmission) configuration and DRX (discontinuous reception) configuration for the sidelink communication between UE 115-a and UE 115-b.
[0179] The DTX configuration 210 may indicate a pattern of one or more DTX cycles, which may include a timing offset (e.g., a slot offset, a frame offset), a periodicity of the one or more DTX cycles, active DTX durations, or inactive DTX durations, or any combination thereof.
[0181] the DRX configuration 215 may indicate a pattern of one or more DRX cycles, which may include a timing offset (e.g., a slot offset, a frame offset), a periodicity of the one or more DRX cycles, active DRX durations, or inactive DRX durations, or any combination thereof.
[0182] The DTX configuration 210 and the DRX configuration 215 therefore are separate. Additionally, the DTX configuration 210 and the DRX configuration 215 are specific for a given sidelink connection, such as the sidelink connection 205. (prov Fig. 2, [0141], [0143], [0144])
[0204] In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the transmission timeline 500 may include sidelink communications between a UE 115-a and a UE 115-b. The transmission timeline 500 may include a DTX timeline 505 associated with the UE 115-a. The DTX timeline 505 may include one or more DTX active durations 510 (also referred to as DTX ON durations).
[0205] The transmission timeline 500 may include a DRX timeline 530 associated with the UE 115-a. The DRX timeline 530 may include one or more DRX active durations 535 (also referred to as DRX ON durations). Note: DTX on duration (510) is different from the DRX on duration (535) as shown in Fig. 5. (prov Fig. 5, [0166], [0167])).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xu as modified by Park with Dutta’s above teachings. The motivation is decreasing power consumption for sidelink operations (Dutta [0133] (prov [0095])).
Claim 16 recites similar limitations of claim 26 except “wherein the sidelink DRX parameter
includes a sidelink DRX on-duration timer …” in claim 16 vs “wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes one or more of a sidelink DRX on-duration timer …” in claim 26. Since the rejection of claim 26 including all the sidelink DRX parameters, claim 16 is thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 21, Xu teaches A method for controlling sidelink communication of a user
equipment (UE) by another UE, the method comprising (Xu UE: Fig. 1, Remote UE, Fig. 5, Remote network node. Another UE: Fig. 1, Relay UE, Fig. 5, Relay network node):
configuring sidelink DRX configuration information including a sidelink discontinuous reception (DRX) parameter for the UE (Xu [0057] the relay network node may also perform the SL-DRX configuration for the remote network node.
[0046]the configuration of SL-DRX may include timers as follows: a SLDRX-onDurationTimer for indicating the number of continuous PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to detect the PSCCH after the network node wakes up from the sleep state; a SLDRX-InactivityTimer for indicating the maximum number of PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to wait for successfully decoding of the PSCCH: a SLDRX-Cycle for indicating the number of sub-frames included in one SL-DRX cycle; and a SLDRX-StartOffset for indicating a sub-frame position where each SL-DRX cycle starts.
[0047] FIG. 4 shows a diagram of an example of a relationship between the above respective timers. Where the gray-filled block corresponds to the SLDRX-onDurationTimer. After the network node wakes up from the sleep state, it detects the PSCCH within the continuous PSCCH sub-frames represented by the gray part. If no PSCCH is successfully decoded until the SLDRX-onDurationTimer times out (two sub-frames in the example of FIG. 4), the network node turns to the sleep state. );
transmitting the sidelink DRX configuration information to the UE (Xu [0057] the relay network node transmits the SL-DRX configuration to the remote network node );
wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, Xu [0046] the configuration of SL-DRX may include timers as follows: a SLDRX-onDurationTimer for indicating the number of continuous PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to detect the PSCCH after the network node wakes up from the sleep state; a SLDRX-InactivityTimer for indicating the maximum number of PSCCH sub-frames for the network node to wait for successfully decoding of the PSCCH: a SLDRX-Cycle for indicating the number of sub-frames included in one SL-DRX cycle; and a SLDRX-StartOffset for indicating a sub-frame position where each SL-DRX cycle starts.),
Although Xu teaches transmitting a sidelink command media access control (MAC) control element (CE) instructing to enter SL-DRX sleep state to the UE (Xu [0068] the transceiving unit 203 may be further configured to transmit control information instructing another network node to enter the SL-DRX sleep state to the other network node.
[0069] the control information can be represented by a MAC PDU sub-header carrying LCID. Specifically, a command element SLDRX Command MAC CE may be newly added, and the LCID corresponding to the SLDRX Command MAC CE is represented on the SL-SCH as shown in Table 1 below. It can be seen that the SLDRX Command MAC CE has a fixed length of 5 bits.
TABLE 1
Index Value of LCID
11011 SL-DRX command
), Xu does not explicitly teach to stop the sidelink DRX parameter based on sidelink command media access control (MAC) control element (CE), wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished for sidelink transmission and reception, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception.
Park in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches to stop the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE (Park [0168] the sidelink DRX command MAC CE may be a sidelink MAC CE used for stopping a timer related to a currently SL DRX operation and transiting to a sleep mode.
[0169] the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-inactivity timer and transit to a sleep mode. the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-onduration timer and transit to a sleep mode. the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-retransmission timer and transit to a sleep mode.
[0197] various embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to the sidelink DRX HARQ RTT timer.),
wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer (Park [0197] sidelink DRX HARQ RTT timer.)
so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception (Park [0139] SL MODE 2 may refer to a resource allocation method or a communication method in which a UE independently selects SL transmission resource(s) in a resource pool pre-configured or configured from a base station or a network.
[0156] the UE may operate based on the following sidelink DRX configuration.
[0157] For example, SL drx-onDurationTimer may be a parameter for the duration at the beginning of a DRX cycle. For example, the beginning of the DRX cycle may be a parameter for the duration in which the UE operates in an active mode to receive sidelink data.
[0159] For example, SL drx-InactivityTimer may be a parameter for the duration after the PSCCH occasion in which a PSCCH indicates a new sidelink transmission and reception for the MAC entity. for example, if the receiving UE is indicated through PSCCH reception that the transmitting UE transmits PSSCH, the receiving UE may operate in an active mode while SL drx-InactivityTimer is running, and the receiving UE can receive PSSCH from the transmitting UE.
[0196] the sidelink DRX inactivity timer may be a timer related to the duration for extending the sidelink DRX onduration period. For example, the sidelink DRX duration period may be the duration in which the receiving UE performing the sidelink DRX operation should basically operate in an active time in order to receive PSCCH/PSSCH from the transmitting UE. for example, if the receiving UE receives a new packet (e.g., new PSSCH) from the transmitting UE, the receiving UE may extend the sidelink DRX onduration timer by starting the sidelink DRX inactivity timer.
[0169] the receiving UE may perform the sidelink DRX operation. the receiving UE may determine whether the received PSSCH is the last sidelink data, based on the field value indicating/representing whether sidelink data is the last sidelink data in the PSCCH (e.g., SCI) or the field value indicating/representing whether sidelink data is the last sidelink data in the PSSCH (e.g., sidelink MAC subheader) received from the transmitting UE. the receiving UE may not remain in an active mode in the remaining on-duration period of sidelink DRX, and the receiving UE may transit to an early sleep mode. if an SL DRX-onduration timer of the receiving UE is running, the receiving UE may stop the remaining SL DRX-onduration timer immediately after transmitting SL HARQ ACK for the last sidelink data to the transmitting UE. That is, the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-onduration timer and transit to a sleep mode.).
By modifying Xu’s teachings of transmitting a sidelink command media access control (MAC)
control element (CE) instructing to enter SL-DRX sleep state to the UE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, a sidelink slot offset, and information indicating a slot where a sidelink DRX cycle starts with Park’s teachings of to stop the sidelink DRX parameter based on the sidelink command MAC CE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception, the modification results in
transmitting a sidelink command media access control (MAC) control element (CE) instructing to stop the sidelink DRX parameter to the UE, wherein the sidelink DRX parameter includes a sidelink DRX on-duration timer, a sidelink DRX inactivity timer, a sidelink HARQ round trip time (RTT) timer, a sidelink slot offset, and information indicating a slot where a sidelink DRX cycle starts, so that each parameter set independently controls a corresponding DRX timer and on-duration period for the sidelink transmission or reception.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xu with Park’s above teachings. The motivation is reducing power consumption (Park [0170]).
Xu in view of Park does not explicitly teach wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished for sidelink transmission and reception.
Dutta in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein the sidelink DRX configuration information includes one or more sidelink DRX parameter sets configured to be distinguished to differ from each other for sidelink transmission and reception (Dutta, Fig. 2 shows DTX (discontinuous transmission) configuration and DRX (discontinuous reception) configuration for the sidelink communication between UE 115-a and UE 115-b.
[0179] The DTX configuration 210 may indicate a pattern of one or more DTX cycles, which may include a timing offset (e.g., a slot offset, a frame offset), a periodicity of the one or more DTX cycles, active DTX durations, or inactive DTX durations, or any combination thereof.
[0181] the DRX configuration 215 may indicate a pattern of one or more DRX cycles, which may include a timing offset (e.g., a slot offset, a frame offset), a periodicity of the one or more DRX cycles, active DRX durations, or inactive DRX durations, or any combination thereof.
[0182] The DTX configuration 210 and the DRX configuration 215 therefore are separate. Additionally, the DTX configuration 210 and the DRX configuration 215 are specific for a given sidelink connection, such as the sidelink connection 205. (prov Fig. 2, [0141], [0143], [0144])
[0204] In the example illustrated in FIG. 5, the transmission timeline 500 may include sidelink communications between a UE 115-a and a UE 115-b. The transmission timeline 500 may include a DTX timeline 505 associated with the UE 115-a. The DTX timeline 505 may include one or more DTX active durations 510 (also referred to as DTX ON durations).
[0205] The transmission timeline 500 may include a DRX timeline 530 associated with the UE 115-a. The DRX timeline 530 may include one or more DRX active durations 535 (also referred to as DRX ON durations). Note: DTX on duration (510) is different from the DRX on duration (535) as shown in Fig. 5. (prov Fig. 5, [0166], [0167])).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xu as modified by Park with Dutta’s above teachings. The motivation is decreasing power consumption for sidelink operations (Dutta [0133] (prov [0095])).
Regarding claim 20, Xu in view of Park and Dutta (hereinafter combination) discloses The
method of claim 16.
Park teaches wherein the sidelink DRX parameter stopped based on the sidelink command MAC
CE is a sidelink DRX on-duration timer for a pair of source L2 ID information and destination L2 ID information (Park [0168] the sidelink DRX command MAC CE may be a sidelink MAC CE used for stopping a timer related to a currently SL DRX operation and transiting to a sleep mode. [0169] the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-onduration timer and transit to a sleep mode.
[0195] various embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to the sidelink DRX onduration timer. …
[0207] The parameter or parameter configuration value may be configured specifically or independently based on at least one of … a combination of L2 source layer ID and L2 destination layer ID, …) and
a sidelink DRX inactivity timer (Park [0169] the receiving UE may stop the SL DRX-inactivity timer and transit to a sleep mode.).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination with Park’s above teachings. The motivation is reducing power consumption (Park [0170]).
Claims 25 and 30 recite similar limitations of claim 20, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Claim(s) 17, 22 and 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu in view of Park and Dutta as applied to claims 16, 21 and 26 above, and further in view of US 20230064488 A1 by Han et al. (hereinafter Han).
Regarding claim 17, the combination discloses The method of claim 16.
The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the sidelink DRX parameter is configured in
association with one or more of a PC5 unicast link, a PC5-RRC connection, a logical connection for a pair of source L2 ID and destination L2 ID, a sidelink radio bearer, and a sidelink RLC bearer.
Han in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein the sidelink DRX parameter is
configured in association with one or more of a PC5 unicast link, a PC5-RRC connection, a logical connection for a pair of source L2 ID and destination L2 ID, a sidelink radio bearer, and a sidelink RLC bearer (Han [0038] i) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one SLRB (Sidelink Radio Bearer ) configuration and one SLRB ID.
[0039] ii) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one Quality of Service (QoS) flow and one QoS flow ID;
[0040] iii) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one PQI (PC5 Qos Index).
[0041] iv) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one logical channel configuration and one logical channel ID.
[0042] v) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one unicast link and unicast link ID, the unicast link ID could be combination of sidelink source ID and sidelink destination ID.
[0043] vi) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one destination ID.
[0044] vii) The sidelink DRX configuration is associated with one source ID. ).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination with Han’s above teachings. The motivation is aligning sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration and reducing power consumption of the sidelink UEs (Han [0024]).
Claims 22 and 27 recite similar limitations of claim 17, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David Z Sun whose telephone number is (571)270-0750. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 0800am-0500pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo Jeong can be reached at 571-272-9617. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/D.Z.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2418
/Moo Jeong/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418