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 .
Response to Arguments
1. Applicant’s arguments filed on 12/17/2025 regarding claims 1-30 in the remarks are fully considered but moot in view of new ground(s) of rejection.
Response to Amendments
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
2. 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.
3. Claim(s) 1 and 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan (US PG Pub. No. 2023/0345515) in view of Shen (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0185715) and further in view of Thomas (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0163835) and Freda (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0150730).
As per claim 1:
Selvanesan teaches an apparatus for wireless communications at a first user equipment (UE) (see Figure 5, further UE1 4041), comprising:
one or more processors (see Figure 6, paragraph [0378], computer system 600 comprise processor 602);
memory coupled with the one or more processors (see Figure 6, processor 602 coupled to main memory 606 and secondary memory 608 via bus 604);
and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus (see paragraph [0379], processor 602 for executing programs stored in main memory 606 and secondary memory 608, thereby enabling the computer system 600 to implement the present invention) to:
transmit, to a network entity (see Figure 5, paragraph [0283], UE 400 receiving a single AIM (assistance information message) from further UE1 4041. Note: Examiner is reading said UE 400 as said network entity especially since a UE could encompass a hand-held UE or even a base station, please see paragraph [0375]) via an access link (even though figure 5 does not show a clear representation of a link between UEs or between UE and base station, figure 4 of the prior art shows links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link), a first message (see paragraph [0283], AIM) indicating reference signal measurement data collected by the first UE (see paragraph [0285], AIM contains measurement and sensing results. Said measurement and sensing results may include power levels of all resources that were measured by the further UE 404 when it carried out the sensing process, for example, the measured RSRP values or SL RSRP values associated with the respective resources, please see paragraph [0288]) at a geo-location (paragraph [0287], discloses the UE 400 determines the AIM containing the sensing results are valid in the case they are obtained from the further UE 404 that is located at a certain location or within a certain region, like a certain geo-location, or that is located at a certain distance from the UE 400. Thus, it is evident that the gathered sensing results are associated with a geo-location) and geo-location information indicating the geo-location (paragraphs [0040]-[0044] discloses the AIM may provide the UE with one or more of geographical information, e.g., GPS coordinates, zone ID or a list of zone IDS, relating to the geographical position of one further UE and/or other further UEs);
receive, from the network entity via the access link (as explained earlier in figure 4, links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link) in response to the first message (see paragraph [0301], after repeating the process of resource selection based on the received AIM, the UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set) and as part of a verification procedure associated with the geo-location information transmitted by the first UE (see paragraph [0287], UE 400 considers the sensing results contained in the AIM as valid based on the location or region of the further UE. Paragraph [0289] discloses the UE 400 then chooses first m or top m resources as indicated in the AIM), a second message (as explained earlier in paragraph [0301], based on the resource selection of the received AIM, UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set)….
Selvanesan does not clearly teach a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for transmitting a sidelink message to at least one second UE on a set of resources.
Shen teaches a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for transmitting a sidelink message to at least one second UE on a set of resources (see paragraph [0040], the first terminal 12 monitors the first DCI and receives a first sidelink information in the first DCI. The first terminal 12 then transmits sidelink data on the time-frequency resources (e.g., on PSSCH) as determined by the first DCI to the second terminal 13. Note: Said first DCI as disclosed in paragraph [0008] is configured to transport scheduling of a sidelink between the first terminal and the second terminal).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the transmission of the first and second DCI for scheduling sidelink resource between the first and second terminal (as disclosed in Shen) into Selvanesan as a way of reducing the latency scheduling sidelink information (please see paragraph [0088] of Shen).
Selvanesan and Shen do not clearly teach the second message indicates a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message as claimed.
Thomas teaches receiving a message indicating a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message (see paragraph [0263], the transceiver 1425 receives a request for a set of sidelink resources from an initiator UE. In response to the request, the transceiver 1425 transmits a sidelink positioning resource grant for performing a sidelink positioning between the initiator UE and the responder UE. The sidelink positioning resource grant is associated with source and destination physical layer sidelink positioning identifiers).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of sidelink resource grants (as disclosed in Thomas) into Selvanesan and Shen for the purpose of low latency, high precision ranging based on different configured PRS types (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas). Therefore, by implementing such mechanism enables efficient sidelink positioning (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas do not clearly teach and transmit the sidelink message on the set of resources to at least a second UE, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier.
Freda teaches and transmit the sidelink message on the set of resources to at least a second UE, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier (see paragraph [0242], WTRU may determine specific resources on which to transmit RS based on WTRU’s source ID, the destination ID associated with a unicast link. Paragraph [0194] disclose every frame sent on the unicast link contains a source layer-2 ID field and a destination layer-2 ID field. Therefore, said RS transmitted on the specific resources contains source and destination identifiers. Note: Paragraph [0207] disclose the NR V2X supports unicast links between WTRUs, in which one or more sidelink radio bearer may be established. Therefore, it is evident that the RS transmitted on the unicast link is a sidelink transmission).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the bearer configuration (as disclosed in Freda) into Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas as a way of enabling the WRTU to determine the density of RS to be transmitted along with its sidelink data (please see paragraph [0246] of Freda). Therefore, transmission on the specific resources enhances link establishment procedure (please see paragraph [0198] of Freda).
As per claim 29:
Selvanesan teaches a method for wireless communications at a first user equipment (UE) (see abstract), comprising:
transmitting, to a network entity (see Figure 5, paragraph [0283], UE 400 receiving a single AIM (assistance information message) from further UE1 4041. Note: Examiner is reading said UE 400 as said network entity especially since a UE could encompass a hand-held UE or even a base station, please see paragraph [0375]) via an access link (even though figure 5 does not show a clear representation of a link between UEs or between UE and base station, figure 4 of the prior art shows links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link), a first message (see paragraph [0283], AIM) indicating reference signal measurement data collected by the first UE (see paragraph [0285], AIM contains measurement and sensing results. Said measurement and sensing results may include power levels of all resources that were measured by the further UE 404 when it carried out the sensing process, for example, the measured RSRP values or SL RSRP values associated with the respective resources, please see paragraph [0288]) at a geo-location (paragraph [0287], discloses the UE 400 determines the AIM containing the sensing results are valid in the case they are obtained from the further UE 404 that is located at a certain location or within a certain region, like a certain geo-location, or that is located at a certain distance from the UE 400. Thus, it is evident that the gathered sensing results are associated with a geo-location) and geo- location information indicating the geo-location (paragraphs [0040]-[0044] discloses the AIM may provide the UE with one or more of geographical information, e.g., GPS coordinates, zone ID or a list of zone IDS, relating to the geographical position of one further UE and/or other further UEs);
receiving, from the network entity via the access link (as explained earlier in figure 4, links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link) in response to the first message (see paragraph [0301], after repeating the process of resource selection based on the received AIM, the UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set) and as part of a verification procedure associated with the geo-location information transmitted by the first UE (see paragraph [0287], UE 400 considers the sensing results contained in the AIM as valid based on the location or region of the further UE. Paragraph [0289] discloses the UE 400 then chooses first m or top m resources as indicated in the AIM), a second message (as explained earlier in paragraph [0301], based on the resource selection of the received AIM, UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set)….
Selvanesan does not clearly teach a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for transmitting a sidelink message to at least one second UE on a set of resources.
Shen teaches a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for transmitting a sidelink message to at least one second UE on a set of resources (see paragraph [0040], the first terminal 12 monitors the first DCI and receives a first sidelink information in the first DCI. The first terminal 12 then transmits sidelink data on the time-frequency resources (e.g., on PSSCH) as determined by the first DCI to the second terminal 13. Note: Said first DCI as disclosed in paragraph [0008] is configured to transport scheduling of a sidelink between the first terminal and the second terminal).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the transmission of the first and second DCI for scheduling sidelink resource between the first and second terminal (as disclosed in Shen) into Selvanesan as a way of reducing the latency scheduling sidelink information (please see paragraph [0088] of Shen).
Selvanesan and Shen do not clearly teach the second message indicates a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message as claimed.
Thomas teaches receiving a message indicating a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message (see paragraph [0263], the transceiver 1425 receives a request for a set of sidelink resources from an initiator UE. In response to the request, the transceiver 1425 transmits a sidelink positioning resource grant for performing a sidelink positioning between the initiator UE and the responder UE. The sidelink positioning resource grant is associated with source and destination physical layer sidelink positioning identifiers).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of sidelink resource grants (as disclosed in Thomas) into Selvanesan and Shen for the purpose of low latency, high precision ranging based on different configured PRS types (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas). Therefore, by implementing such mechanism enables efficient sidelink positioning (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas do not clearly teach and transmit the sidelink message on the set of resources to at least a second UE, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier.
Freda teaches and transmit the sidelink message on the set of resources to at least a second UE, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier (see paragraph [0242], WTRU may determine specific resources on which to transmit RS based on WTRU’s source ID, the destination ID associated with a unicast link. Paragraph [0194] disclose every frame sent on the unicast link contains a source layer-2 ID field and a destination layer-2 ID field. Therefore, said RS transmitted on the specific resources contains source and destination identifiers. Note: Paragraph [0207] disclose the NR V2X supports unicast links between WTRUs, in which one or more sidelink radio bearer may be established. Therefore, it is evident that the RS transmitted on the unicast link is a sidelink transmission).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the bearer configuration (as disclosed in Freda) into Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas as a way of enabling the WRTU to determine the density of RS to be transmitted along with its sidelink data (please see paragraph [0246] of Freda). Therefore, transmission on the specific resources enhances link establishment procedure (please see paragraph [0198] of Freda).
4. Claim(s) 2 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0266110).
As per claim 2:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to receive the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive an indication of a transmit power for transmitting the sidelink message, wherein transmitting the sidelink message is in accordance with the transmit power.
Wang teaches wherein the instructions to receive the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive an indication of a transmit power for transmitting the sidelink message, wherein transmitting the sidelink message is in accordance with the transmit power (see paragraph [0051], transmitting apparatus 200 receiving from a base station first control information for sidelink communication. Said first control information including transmission power value of the PSSCH, please see paragraph [0069]. Paragraphs [0095], [0096], disclose transmitting PSSCH by the apparatus 301 using a transmission power).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use of control information such as transmission power on the sidelink channel (as disclosed in Wang) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of controlling the transmission power of the physical sidelink channel (please see paragraph [0095] of Wang).
Claim 30 is rejected in the same scope as claim 2.
5. Claim(s) 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Sun (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0031095).
As per claim 3:
Selnavesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message including a plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, corresponding to a reference signal pattern.
Sun teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message including a plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, corresponding to a reference signal pattern (see paragraph [0089], transmitter indicates a sidelink DMRS configuration to the receiver, where this configuration includes the DMRS density and can be indicated via RRC or SCI signaling. Figure 10 shows DMRS transmission occupying specific frequency and time symbols and thus corresponding to a reference signal pattern).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the DMRS pattern for sidelink transmissions (as disclosed in Sun) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of obtaining orthogonality across multiple subcarriers (please see paragraph [0062] of Sun).
As per claim 4:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Sun teaches the apparatus of claim 3.
Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda do not teach wherein the instructions to receive the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
receive an indication of the reference signal pattern that identifies a density of the plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals or the plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, in the sidelink message.
Sun teaches wherein the instructions to receive the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
receive an indication of the reference signal pattern that identifies a density of the plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals or the plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, in the sidelink message (see paragraph [0089], transmitter indicates a sidelink DMRS configuration to the receiver, where this configuration includes the DMRS density and can be indicated via RRC or SCI signaling. Figure 10 shows DMRS transmission occupying specific frequency and time symbols and thus corresponding to a reference signal pattern).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the DMRS pattern for sidelink transmissions (as disclosed in Sun) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of obtaining orthogonality across multiple subcarriers (please see paragraph [0062] of Sun).
6. Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Lee (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0321385).
As per claim 5:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message comprising a dummy payload.
Lee teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message comprising a dummy payload (see paragraph [0089], second UE may transmit a pre-configured dummy/payload(s) to the first UE and the first US may use the pre-configured dummy/payload(s) as reference signal(s) and/or resource(s) for measuring SL channel state(s)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of dummy/payload(s) by a UE (as disclosed in Lee) into Selvanesan, Shen,Thomas and Freda as a way of measuring sidelink channel state(s) (see paragraph [0189] of Lee).
7. Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Lee (US Patent No. 12,150,114), hereinafter referred to as Lee’114.
As per claim 6:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message comprising sidelink control information that includes the source identifier and the destination identifier.
Lee’114 teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the sidelink message (see Col 20, lines 28-37, after establishing PC5-RRC connection(s) with one or more UEs, UE1 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) to UE1 through a PSCCH or PSSCH) are executable by the one or more processors (see Figure 17, Col 28, lines 25-35, first wireless device 100 comprising processor(s) 102 for processing information within memory) to cause the apparatus to: transmit the sidelink message comprising sidelink control information that includes the source identifier and the destination identifier (see Col 20, lines 28-37, UE1 may transmit a SCI to the UE2 through either a PSSCH or PSCCH. Said SCI may include source ID and destination ID).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of sidelink control information including said source and destination identifiers (as disclosed in Lee’141) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of enabling the receiving UE to determine whether or not to perform HARQ feedback (see Col 20, lines 38-47 of Lee’141). Therefore, by providing the UE with source and destination ID, the UE can efficiently determine an HARQ feedback option for performing HARQ feedback (please see Col 2, lines 55-67 and Col 3, lines 1-8 of Lee’141).
8. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Marcano (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0196385).
As per claim 7:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
perform a machine learning training procedure to obtain one or more machine learning model parameters, wherein the reference signal measurement data is based at least in part on the one or more machine learning model parameters.
Marcano teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
perform a machine learning training procedure to obtain one or more machine learning model parameters, wherein the reference signal measurement data is based at least in part on the one or more machine learning model parameters (see Figure 3, paragraph [0058], terminal device 310 capable of sidelink communication transmits an indication 341 to the RAN indicating the terminal device 310 is available for ML training with data obtained from sidelink communication. Paragraph [0059], RAN determines the terminal device 310 is an authorized terminal device for sidelink training session and then transmits an indication 342 to the terminal. Said indication 342 indicates a configuration for an ML BWP for the purpose of providing and obtaining training data for ML training with the data obtained from the sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use configuration information comprising machine learning bandwidth part (as disclosed in Marcano) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda for the purpose of providing and obtaining training data for the ML training with the data obtained from the sidelink communication (please see paragraph [0059] of Marcano).
9. Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0217731), hereinafter referred to as Wang’731.
As per claim 8:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and Freda teaches the apparatus of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein: the sidelink grant is a group common sidelink grant.
Wang’731 teaches wherein: the sidelink grant is a group common sidelink grant (see paragraph [0052], receiver equipment arranged to receive a grant from base station. The grant enables the plurality of devices to perform group transmission for communication among said plurality of devices over the side-link and for communication between said plurality of devices and the base station over a cellular link).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the assignment of D2D grant (as disclosed in Wang) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of enabling group communication among a plurality of devices over the sidelink (please see paragraph [0087] of Wang’731).
10. Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0007968) and Hoang (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0056997).
As per claim 9:
Selvanesan teaches an apparatus for wireless communications at a second user equipment (UE) (see Figure 5, further UE1 4041), comprising:
one or more processors (see Figure 6, paragraph [0378], computer system 600 comprise processor 602);
memory coupled with the one or more processors (see Figure 6, processor 602 coupled to main memory 606 and secondary memory 608 via bus 604);
and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus (see paragraph [0379], processor 602 for executing programs stored in main memory 606 and secondary memory 608, thereby enabling the computer system 600 to implement the present invention) to:
receive, from a network entity via an access link (Figure 4, links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link) and as part of a verification procedure (see paragraph [0287], UE 400 considers the sensing results contained in the AIM as valid based on the location or region of the further UE. Paragraph [0289] discloses the UE 400 then chooses first m or top m resources as indicated in the AIM) associated with geo-location information (paragraph [0287], discloses the UE 400 determines the AIM containing the sensing results are valid in the case they are obtained from the further UE 404 that is located at a certain location or within a certain region, like a certain geo-location, or that is located at a certain distance from the UE 400. Thus, it is evident that the gathered sensing results are associated with a geo-location) that indicates a geo-location at which reference signal measurement data is collected by a first UE (paragraphs [0040]-[0044] discloses the AIM may provide the UE with one or more of geographical information, e.g., GPS coordinates, zone ID or a list of zone IDS, relating to the geographical position of one further UE and/or other further UEs. See paragraph [0285], AIM contains measurement and sensing results. Said measurement and sensing results may include power levels of all resources that were measured by the further UE 404 when it carried out the sensing process, for example, the measured RSRP values or SL RSRP values associated with the respective resources, please see paragraph [0288]), a message (as explained earlier in paragraph [0301], based on the resource selection of the received AIM, UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set to the further UEs)….
Selvanesan does not clearly teach a message …indicating a sidelink grant to receive a sidelink message from the first UE on a set of resources.
Shen teaches a message …indicating a sidelink grant to receive a sidelink message from the first UE on a set of resources (see paragraph [0040], the first terminal 12 monitors the first DCI and receives a first sidelink information in the first DCI. The first terminal 12 then transmits sidelink data on the time-frequency resources (e.g., on PSSCH) as determined by the first DCI to the second terminal 13. Note: Said first DCI as disclosed in paragraph [0008] is configured to transport scheduling of a sidelink between the first terminal and the second terminal).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the transmission of the first and second DCI for scheduling sidelink resource between the first and second terminal (as disclosed in Shen) into Selvanesan as a way of reducing the latency scheduling sidelink information (please see paragraph [0088] of Shen).
Selvanesan and Shen do not clearly teach a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message.
Thomas teaches a source identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message (see paragraph [0263], the transceiver 1425 receives a request for a set of sidelink resources from an initiator UE. In response to the request, the transceiver 1425 transmits a sidelink positioning resource grant for performing a sidelink positioning between the initiator UE and the responder UE. The sidelink positioning resource grant is associated with source and destination physical layer sidelink positioning identifiers).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of sidelink resource grants (as disclosed in Thomas) into Selvanesan and Shen for the purpose of low latency, high precision ranging based on different configured PRS types (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas). Therefore, by implementing such mechanism enables efficient sidelink positioning (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas do not clearly teach receive, from the first UE via a sidelink, the sidelink message on the set of resources, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier.
Freda teaches receive, from the first UE via a sidelink, the sidelink message on the set of resources, the sidelink message including the source identifier and the destination identifier (see paragraph [0242], WTRU may determine specific resources on which to transmit RS based on WTRU’s source ID, the destination ID associated with a unicast link. Paragraph [0194] disclose every frame sent on the unicast link contains a source layer-2 ID field and a destination layer-2 ID field. Therefore, said RS transmitted on the specific resources contains source and destination identifiers. Note: Paragraph [0207] disclose the NR V2X supports unicast links between WTRUs, in which one or more sidelink radio bearer may be established. Therefore, it is evident that the RS transmitted on the unicast link is a sidelink transmission).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the bearer configuration (as disclosed in Freda) into Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas as a way of enabling the WRTU to determine the density of RS to be transmitted along with its sidelink data (please see paragraph [0246] of Freda). Therefore, transmission on the specific resources enhances link establishment procedure (please see paragraph [0198] of Freda).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda do not clearly teach and transmit, to the network entity via the access link, an indication of calculated geo-location information for the first UE and a received power measurement of the sidelink message.
Shin teaches and transmit, to the network entity via the access link (see Figure 1A, paragraph [0056], for example, UE-1 and UE-2 are able to transmit to the gNB, eNB and RSU using the uplink (UL) and thus the access link), an indication of calculated geo-location information for the first UE, wherein the calculated geo-location information for the first UE is based on the sidelink message (see paragraph [0053], the terminal receiving the SL-PRS may perform the positioning measurement using the signal. The terminal measuring the positioning may transmit the corresponding measurement information to another terminal, the base station or a location server (LS), which is referred to as a measurement report).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the reporting of position measurement information (as disclosed in Shin) into both Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Freda as a way of enabling the network side (such as the location server) to perform location measurement of the target UE (please see paragraph [0090] of Shin).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda and Shin do not clearly teach and a received power measurement of the sidelink message.
Hoang teaches and a received power measurement of the sidelink message (paragraph [0173], disclose the WTRU may receive response messages from the potential assistant WTRUs, said response messages containing sidelink measurement of each WTRU. Paragraph [0262] disclose WTRU may report the set response WTRUs and the associated information (e.g., SL-RSRP, positioning information, etc.) as positioning measurements to the network such as gNB or LMF. Note: Paragraph [0261] disclose said positioning measurement is associated with SL-PRS and thus a sidelink message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the reporting of RSRP of a plurality of WTRUs (as disclosed in Hoang) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda and Shin as a way of enabling the network side to determine a set of A-WTRUs (please see paragraph [0262] of Hoang). Therefore, by determining the set of A-WTRUs, one of the WTRUs within the group could be used as a sync-source (please see paragraph [0164] of Hoang).
11. Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen, and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Ko (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0361142).
As per claim 11:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: calculate a distance to the first UE based at least in part on one or more demodulation reference signals in the sidelink message or one or more positioning reference signals in the sidelink message, or both, wherein the calculated geo-location information for the first UE is based at least in part on the distance to the first UE.
Ko teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: calculate a distance to the first UE based at least in part on one or more demodulation reference signals in the sidelink message or one or more positioning reference signals in the sidelink message, or both, wherein the calculated geo-location information for the first UE is based at least in part on the distance to the first UE (see Figure 17, paragraph [0214], after transmitting (step s17040) and receiving (step s1750) first and second PRS respectively, the target UE calculates the distance between the target UE and the server UE based on the first time difference and the second time difference. Note: The first time difference (i.e., t3-t2) is determined based on reception and transmission of the first and second PRS, please see paragraphs [0213]-[0214] and thus the distance is determined based on the transmitted PRSs. Also, said PRS are transmitted on sidelink resources/channel, please see paragraph [0154] and thus a sidelink message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use of the RTT to measure the distance between UEs (as disclosed in Ko) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang. The motivation for doing so would be to efficiently perform sidelink communication (please see paragraphs [0014]-[0015] of Ko).
As per claim 12:
Selvanesan in view of Shen, Thomas and further in view of Freda, Shin, Hoang and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 11.
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang do not teach wherein: the distance is calculated based at least in part on a time of transmission from the first UE and a time of reception.
Ko teaches wherein: the distance is calculated based at least in part on a time of transmission from the first UE and a time of reception (The first time difference (i.e., t3-t2) is determined based on reception and transmission of the first and second PRS, please see paragraphs [0213]-[0214] and thus the distance is determined based on the transmitted PRSs. Also, said PRS are transmitted on sidelink resources/channel, please see paragraph [0154] and thus a sidelink message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use of the RTT to measure the distance between UEs (as disclosed in Ko) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang. The motivation for doing so would be to efficiently perform sidelink communication (please see paragraphs [0014]-[0015] of Ko).
12. Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Sun (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0031095).
As per claim 13:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink message including a plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, corresponding to a reference signal pattern.
Sun teaches wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink message including a plurality of sidelink demodulation reference signals, a plurality of sidelink positioning reference signals, or both, corresponding to a reference signal pattern (see paragraph [0089], transmitter indicates a sidelink DMRS configuration to the receiver, where this configuration includes the DMRS density and can be indicated via RRC or SCI signaling. Figure 10 shows DMRS transmission occupying specific frequency and time symbols and thus corresponding to a reference signal pattern).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the DMRS pattern for sidelink transmissions (as disclosed in Sun) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of obtaining orthogonality across multiple subcarriers (please see paragraph [0062] of Sun).
13. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Lee (US PG Pub. No. 2021/0321385).
As per claim 14:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink message comprising a dummy payload.
Lee teaches wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink message comprising a dummy payload (see paragraph [0089], second UE may transmit a pre-configured dummy/payload(s) to the first UE and the first US may use the pre-configured dummy/payload(s) as reference signal(s) and/or resource(s) for measuring SL channel state(s)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of dummy/payload(s) by a UE (as disclosed in Lee) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of measuring sidelink channel state(s) (see paragraph [0189] of Lee).
14. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Lee (US Patent No. 12,150,114), hereinafter referred to as Lee’114.
As per claim 15:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
receive the sidelink message comprising sidelink control information that includes the source identifier and the destination identifier.
Lee’114 teaches wherein the instructions to receive the sidelink message (see Col 20, lines 28-37, after establishing PC5-RRC connection(s) with one or more UEs, UE1 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) to UE1 through a PSCCH or PSSCH) are executable by the one or more processors (see Figure 17, Col 28, lines 25-35, first wireless device 100 comprising processor(s) 102 for processing information within memory) to cause the apparatus to:
receive the sidelink message comprising sidelink control information that includes the source identifier and the destination identifier (see Col 20, lines 28-37, UE1 may transmit a SCI to the UE2 through either a PSSCH or PSCCH. Said SCI may include source ID and destination ID).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of sidelink control information including said source and destination identifiers (as disclosed in Lee’141) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of enabling the receiving UE to determine whether or not to perform HARQ feedback (see Col 20, lines 38-47 of Lee’141). Therefore, by providing the UE with source and destination ID, the UE can efficiently determine an HARQ feedback option for performing HARQ feedback (please see Col 2, lines 55-67 and Col 3, lines 1-8 of Lee’141).
15. Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0217731), hereinafter referred to as Wang’731.
As per claim 16:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang and Ghimire teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein: the sidelink grant is a group common sidelink grant.
Wang’731 teaches wherein: the sidelink grant is a group common sidelink grant (see paragraph [0052], receiver equipment arranged to receive a grant from base station. The grant enables the plurality of devices to perform group transmission for communication among said plurality of devices over the side-link and for communication between said plurality of devices and the base station over a cellular link).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the assignment of D2D grant (as disclosed in Wang) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of enabling group communication among a plurality of devices over the sidelink (please see paragraph [0087] of Wang’731).
16. Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Zhou (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0357643).
As per claim 18:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to receive the message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink grant indicating a periodic resource configuration for the set of resources.
Zhou teaches wherein the instructions to receive the message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: receive the sidelink grant indicating a periodic resource configuration for the set of resources (see paragraph [0091], for mode 1, the base station schedule resource for the sidelink UE by transmitting a sidelink grant to the UE and several or periodic sidelink resources used for the sidelink UE are indicated in the sidelink grant).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the resource allocation mode (as disclosed in Zhou) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang. The motivation for doing so would be to support on a wider spectrum and a larger bandwidth (please see paragraph [0010] of Zhou).
17. Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2023/0325679), hereinafter referred to as Wang’679.
As per claim 19:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein: the second UE is a trusted UE for data reporting in a machine learning model training procedure.
Wang’679 teaches wherein: the second UE is a trusted UE for data reporting in a machine learning model training procedure (see Figure 6, steps 655, 660, 665 and 670, paragraph [0083], after performing training procedure 655 and 660 respectively, UE112 and UE 113 report their updated ML configuration information to coordinating UE111 via sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to reporting of updated ML configuration (as disclosed in Wang’679) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of generating a common UECS ML configuration with the purpose of training a combination of UECS DNNs (please see paragraph [0083] of Wang’679).
18. Claims 10 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin, Hoang and Rao (US PG Pub. No. 2020/0163005).
As per claim 10:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit an indication of collected data, wherein the message indicating the sidelink grant is received based at least in part on the indication of the collected data.
Rao teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to: transmit an indication of collected data, wherein the message indicating the sidelink grant is received based at least in part on the indication of the collected data (see paragraph [0021], disclose sending request for sidelink radio resource to a gNB. The request comprising parameters associated with the requested sidelink radio resource. The parameters include a total estimated data volume required by all UEs in the platoon, a traffic pattern indicating the timing of data transmission, a number of transmissions and a parameter indicating geo-location of UEs in platoon/group. The receiving UE receives resource grant and resource reservation based on the sent request).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of resources for the group of UEs (as disclosed in Rao) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of satisfying a quality-of-service requirement (please see paragraph [0094] of Rao).
As per claim 17:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 9 with the exception of:
wherein: the destination identifier is associated with a plurality of UEs including the second UE.
Rao teaches wherein: the destination identifier is associated with a plurality of UEs including the second UE (see paragraph [0086], each of the FUEs within the platoon are provided with source and destination IDs between FUE and LUE).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of resources for the group of UEs (as disclosed in Rao) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Freda, Shin and Hoang as a way of satisfying a quality-of-service requirement (please see paragraph [0094] of Rao).
19. Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu (WO 2023/141787) and Hoang (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0056997).
As per claim 20:
Selvanesan teaches an apparatus for wireless communications at a network entity (see Figure 5, UE 400), comprising:
one or more processors (see Figure 6, paragraph [0378], computer system 600 comprise processor 602);
memory coupled with the one or more processors (see Figure 6, processor 602 coupled to main memory 606 and secondary memory 608 via bus 604);
and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus (see paragraph [0379], processor 602 for executing programs stored in main memory 606 and secondary memory 608, thereby enabling the computer system 600 to implement the present invention) to:
receive (see Figure 5, paragraph [0283], UE 400 receiving a single AIM (assistance information message) from further UE1 4041. Note: Examiner is reading said UE 400 as said network entity especially since a UE could encompass a hand-held UE or even a base station, please see paragraph [0375]), via an access link (even though figure 5 does not show a clear representation of a link between UEs or between UE and base station, figure 4 of the prior art shows links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link), a first message (see paragraph [0283], AIM) indicating reference signal measurement data collected by a first user equipment (UE) (see paragraph [0285], AIM contains measurement and sensing results. Said measurement and sensing results may include power levels of all resources that were measured by the further UE 404 when it carried out the sensing process, for example, the measured RSRP values or SL RSRP values associated with the respective resources, please see paragraph [0288]) at a geo-location (paragraph [0287], discloses the UE 400 determines the AIM containing the sensing results are valid in the case they are obtained from the further UE 404 that is located at a certain location or within a certain region, like a certain geo-location, or that is located at a certain distance from the UE 400. Thus, it is evident that the gathered sensing results are associated with a geo-location) and geo-location information indicating the geo-location (paragraphs [0040]-[0044] discloses the AIM may provide the UE with one or more of geographical information, e.g., GPS coordinates, zone ID or a list of zone IDS, relating to the geographical position of one further UE and/or other further UEs);
transmit, to the first UE via the access link (as explained earlier in figure 4, links 308 between UEs and links 306a and 306b between BS 300 and the respective UEs and thus an access link) in response to the first message (see paragraph [0301], after repeating the process of resource selection based on the received AIM, the UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set) and as part of a verification procedure associated with the geo-location information for the first UE (see paragraph [0287], UE 400 considers the sensing results contained in the AIM as valid based on the location or region of the further UE. Paragraph [0289] discloses the UE 400 then chooses first m or top m resources as indicated in the AIM), a second message (as explained earlier in paragraph [0301], based on the resource selection of the received AIM, UE 400 sends combined candidate resource set)….
Selvanesan does not clearly teach a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for a sidelink message from the first UE to a plurality of UEs on a set of resources.
Shen teaches a second message …indicating a sidelink grant for a sidelink message from the first UE to a plurality of UEs on a set of resources (see paragraph [0040], the first terminal 12 monitors the first DCI and receives a first sidelink information in the first DCI. The first terminal 12 then transmits sidelink data on the time-frequency resources (e.g., on PSSCH) as determined by the first DCI to the second terminal 13. Note: Said first DCI as disclosed in paragraph [0008] is configured to transport scheduling of a sidelink between the first terminal and the second terminal).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to implement the transmission of the first and second DCI for scheduling sidelink resource between the first and second terminal (as disclosed in Shen) into Selvanesan as a way of reducing the latency scheduling sidelink information (please see paragraph [0088] of Shen).
Selvanesan and Shen do not clearly teach a source destination identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message.
Thomas teaches a source destination identifier associated with the sidelink message, and a destination identifier associated with the sidelink message for transmitting the sidelink message (see paragraph [0263], the transceiver 1425 receives a request for a set of sidelink resources from an initiator UE. In response to the request, the transceiver 1425 transmits a sidelink positioning resource grant for performing a sidelink positioning between the initiator UE and the responder UE. The sidelink positioning resource grant is associated with source and destination physical layer sidelink positioning identifiers).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the allocation of sidelink resource grants (as disclosed in Thomas) into Selvanesan and Shen for the purpose of low latency, high precision ranging based on different configured PRS types (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas). Therefore, by implementing such mechanism enables efficient sidelink positioning (please see paragraph [0042] of Thomas).
The combination of Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas do not clearly teach and receive, from the plurality of UEs, a plurality of indications of calculated geo-location information for the first UE.
Hu teaches and receive, from the plurality of UEs, a plurality of indications of calculated geo-location information for the first UE (paragraph [0123], a target UE (construed as said first UE) may participate in a positioning measurement procedure with a set of anchor UEs (construed as said plurality of UEs) to obtain its location based on SL-PRS transmission(s). The target UE may perform measurement on SL-PRS transmission(s) (construed as said sidelink message) received from the set of anchor UEs. Paragraph [0138] disclose target UE may then transmit a report including the received position measurement result(s) to the network entity).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the measurement and reporting of position measurement results (as disclosed in Hu) into Selvanesan, Shen and Thomas as a way of enabling a server to calculate the position results (please see paragraph [0138] of Hu).
Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Hu do not teach and a plurality of received power measurements for the sidelink message.
Hoang and a plurality of received power measurements for the sidelink message (paragraph [0173], disclose the WTRU may receive response messages from the potential assistant WTRUs, said response messages containing sidelink measurement of each WTRU. Paragraph [0262] disclose WTRU may report the set response WTRUs and the associated information (e.g., SL-RSRP, positioning information, etc.) as positioning measurements to the network such as gNB or LMF. Note: Paragraph [0261] disclose said positioning measurement is associated with SL-PRS and thus a sidelink message).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the reporting of RSRP of a plurality of WTRUs (as disclosed in Hoang) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas and Hu as a way of enabling the network side to determine a set of A-WTRUs (please see paragraph [0262] of Hoang). Therefore, by determining the set of A-WTRUs, one of the WTRUs within the group could be used as a sync-source (please see paragraph [0164] of Hoang).
20. Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen, Thomas and further in view of Hu, Hoang and Ghimire (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0284396).
As per claim 21:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
train a machine learning model using the reference signal measurement data collected at the first UE based at least in part on the plurality of indications of calculated geo-location information for the first UE verifying the geo-location information indicated via the first message.
Ghimire teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
train a machine learning model using the reference signal measurement data collected at the first UE based at least in part on the plurality of indications of calculated geo-location information for the first UE verifying the geo-location information indicated via the first message (paragraph [0554], disclose stationary UEs or UEs with higher reliability or position estimates may be used to train a ML model for verifying and/or generating estimates. Paragraph [0561] disclose a procedure for generating the UE position or for verifying the UE position may comprise steps: paragraph [0562], (1) the network entity and/or the UE has trained the ML model itself or receives the configuration of the ML model. Paragraphs [0563] and [0564], steps (2), (3) disclose the UE and network may use the input parameters the model is trained with to estimate the location).
Thus, would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the training of ML model using position estimates of one or more UEs (as disclosed in Ghimire) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang as a way of determining and/or verifying UE location and for determining parameters of the system (please see paragraph [0555] of Ghimire).
21. Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and further in view of Hu, Hoang and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2021/02366110).
As per claim 23:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of wherein the instructions to transmit the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit an indication of a transmit power for the first UE to apply when transmitting the sidelink message.
Wang teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the second message (paragraph [0051] disclose receiving first control information) are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit an indication of a transmit power for the first UE to apply when transmitting the sidelink message (see paragraph [0051], transmitting apparatus 200 receiving from a base station first control information for sidelink communication. Said first control information including transmission power value of the PSSCH, please see paragraph [0069]. Paragraphs [0095], [0096], disclose transmitting PSSCH by the apparatus 301 using a transmission power).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the use of control information such as transmission power on the sidelink channel (as disclosed in Wu) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu, and Hoang as a way of controlling the transmission power of the physical sidelink channel (please see paragraph [0095] of Wu).
22. Claims 24 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas and further in view of Hu, Hoang and Rao (US PG Pub. No. 2020/0163005).
As per claim 24:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit, to the plurality of UEs, a third message scheduling the plurality of UEs to receive the sidelink message on the set of resources and indicating the source destination identifier and the destination identifier.
Rao teaches wherein the instructions are further executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit, to the plurality of UEs, a third message scheduling the plurality of UEs to receive the sidelink message on the set of resources and indicating the source destination identifier and the destination identifier (see paragraph [0086] disclose F-UEs within the platoon may receive AS-level signaling to configure SL-RBs, resource pools and configure channel measurement and reporting. Said AS-level signaling also indicates destination and source ID(s) between L-UE and F-UE).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of AS-level signaling containing the configured SL-RBs (as disclosed in Rao) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang as a way of supporting sidelink transmissions (i.e., Mode 1 and Mode 2) based on one or more traffic attributes (please see paragraph [0087] of Rao).
As per claim 27:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein: the destination identifier is associated with each UE of the plurality of UEs.
Rao teaches wherein: the destination identifier is associated with each UE of the plurality of UEs (see paragraph [0086], each of the FUEs within the platoon are provided with source and destination IDs between FUE and LUE).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the transmission of AS-level signaling containing the configured SL-RBs (as disclosed in Rao) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang as a way of supporting sidelink transmissions (i.e., Mode 1 and Mode 2) based on one or more traffic attributes (please see paragraph [0087] of Rao).
23. Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu, Hoang and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2022/0217731), hereinafter referred to as Wang’731.
As per claim 25:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to transmit the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit the second message to the plurality of UEs based at least in part on the sidelink grant being a group common sidelink grant.
Wang’731 teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit the second message to the plurality of UEs based at least in part on the sidelink grant being a group common sidelink grant (see paragraph [0052], receiver equipment arranged to receive a grant from base station. The grant enables the plurality of devices to perform group transmission for communication among said plurality of devices over the side-link and for communication between said plurality of devices and the base station over a cellular link).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the assignment of D2D grant (as disclosed in Wang’731) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang as a way of enabling group communication among a plurality of devices over the sidelink (please see paragraph [0087] of Wang’731).
24. Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu, Hoang and Zhou (US PG Pub. No. 2024/0357643).
As per claim 26:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein the instructions to transmit the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit the sidelink grant indicating a periodic resource configuration for the set of resources.
Zhou teaches wherein the instructions to transmit the second message are executable by the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:
transmit the sidelink grant indicating a periodic resource configuration for the set of resources (see paragraph [0091], for mode 1, the base station schedule resource for the sidelink UE by transmitting a sidelink grant to the UE and several or periodic sidelink resources used for the sidelink UE are indicated in the sidelink grant).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to incorporate the resource allocation mode (as disclosed in Zhou) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang. The motivation for doing so would be to support on a wider spectrum and a larger bandwidth (please see paragraph [0010] of Zhou).
25. Claim 28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu, Hoang and Wang (US PG Pub. No. 2023/0325679), hereinafter referred to as Wang’679.
As per claim 28:
Selvanesan in view of Shen and further in view of Thomas, Hu and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 20 with the exception of:
wherein: each UE of the plurality of UEs is a trusted UE for data reporting in a machine learning model training procedure.
Wang’679 teaches wherein: each UE of the plurality of UEs is a trusted UE for data reporting in a machine learning model training procedure (see Figure 6, steps 655, 660, 665 and 670, paragraph [0083], after performing training procedure 655 and 660 respectively, UE112 and UE 113 report their updated ML configuration information to coordinating UE111 via sidelink communication).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to reporting of updated ML configuration (as disclosed in Wang’679) into Selvanesan, Shen, Thomas, Hu and Hoang as a way of generating a common UECS ML configuration with the purpose of training a combination of UECS DNNs (please see paragraph [0083] of Wang’679).
Allowable Subject Matter
26. Claim 22 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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.
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PRINCE AKWASI. MENSAH
Examiner
Art Unit 2474
/PRINCE A MENSAH/Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/BENJAMIN H ELLIOTT IV/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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