DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
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.
Claims 15-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue et al. (US 20220070776 A1) in view of Ko et al. (US 20230389045 A1).
Regarding claim 15, Xue et al. teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the method comprising: acquiring configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 60, 63, the UE receives control/configuration parameters (e.g., T0, T1, T2) governing power saving behavior); and measuring a sidelink (SL) channel busy ratio (CBR) on the slots for measurement (Paragraph 28, the UE performs CBR measurements over defined time intervals).
Xue et al. does not explicitly teach identifying slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving; wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving.
However, Ko et al. teaches identifying slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 105, 110, 181, 215, the UE uses configured SL DRX parameters, sensing timers, and configured sensing windows to determine the specific time periods and slots in which sensing/measurement is to be performed); wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 102, 103, 108, 110, 181, 215, the UE limits sensing/measurement to slots associated with configured SL DRX operations (active-time decoding, reception operations, or sensing-timer periods), such that measurements are performed only in designated slots within the measurement window according to power-saving configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide identifying slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving; wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving as taught by Ko et al. in the system of Xue et al., so that it would reduce unnecessary sensing and measurement activity, conserve UE power consumption, and ensure that channel busy ratio measurements are performed during relevant operational periods defined by the power-saving configuration while maintaining accurate sidelink channel utilization assessment.
Regarding claim 16, Xue et al. teaches the specific operations comprise channel sensing, a physical SL control channel (PSCCH) reception, and a physical SL shared channel (PSSCH) reception (Paragraph 26, 28, describes sensing the channel for sidelink access and receiving sidelink control (PSCCH) and data (PSSCH) transmissions).
Regarding claim 17, Xue et al. teaches the UE performs an SL received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement in the slots (Paragraph 28, This teaches that a UE measures sidelink RSSI during specific time intervals/subframes, which corresponds to performing SL RSSI measurements in slots).
Regarding claim 18, Xue et al. teaches a sum of channel occupancy ratios (CRs) below a priority does not exceed a CR limit corresponding to the priority, and wherein the CR limit is associated with the priority and the SL CBR (Paragraph 28, The passage teaches determining CR limits based on SL CBR and using those limits to regulate allowable channel use, which encompasses constraining the sum of CRs under a priority to not exceed the mapped CR limit associated with that priority and the SL CBR).
Regarding claim 19, Xue et al. teaches a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver; and a controller configured to: acquire configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 60, 63, the UE receives control/configuration parameters (e.g., T0, T1, T2) governing power saving behavior), and measure a sidelink (SL) channel busy ratio (CBR) on the slots for measurement (Paragraph 28, the UE performs CBR measurements over defined time intervals).
Xue et al. does not explicitly teach identify slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving, wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving.
However, Ko et al. teaches identify slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 105, 110, 181, 215, the UE uses configured SL DRX parameters, sensing timers, and configured sensing windows to determine the specific time periods and slots in which sensing/measurement is to be performed), wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving (Paragraph 102, 103, 108, 110, 181, 215, the UE limits sensing/measurement to slots associated with configured SL DRX operations (active-time decoding, reception operations, or sensing-timer periods), such that measurements are performed only in designated slots within the measurement window according to power-saving configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide identify slots for measurement based on the configuration information for power saving, wherein the UE performs the measurement only in slots where the UE performs specific operations within a CBR measurement window based on the configuration information for power saving as taught by Ko et al. in the system of Xue et al., so that it would reduce unnecessary sensing and measurement activity, conserve UE power consumption, and ensure that channel busy ratio measurements are performed during relevant operational periods defined by the power-saving configuration while maintaining accurate sidelink channel utilization assessment.
Regarding claim 20, Xue et al. teaches the specific operations comprise channel sensing, a physical SL control channel, PSCCH, reception, and a physical SL shared channel (PSSCH) reception (Paragraph 26, 28, 30, 96, 97, These passages teach that sidelink UEs perform sensing for channel access and receive both PSCCH-carried control information and PSSCH-carried data).
Regarding claim 21, Xue et al. teaches the UE performs an SL received signal strength indication (RSSI) measurement in the slots (Paragraph 28, Because computing CBR requires the UE to measure RSSI on subchannels across defined time intervals/subframes, this teaches the UE performing RSSI measurements in the slots).
Regarding claim 22, Xue et al. teaches a sum of channel occupancy ratios (CRs) below a priority does not exceed a CR limit corresponding to the priority, and wherein the CR limit is associated with the priority and the SL CBR (Paragraph 28, The passage teaches that the CBR measurement is mapped to a CR limit that constrains (i.e., caps) the allowable channel usage, which corresponds to the claim’s requirement that the sum of CRs under a given priority not exceed a CR limit tied to the priority and the sidelink CBR).
Allowable Subject Matter
The claim could be strengthened to more fully reflect the disclosed inventive concepts by incorporating features directed to determining one or more measurement resource ranges based on both sidelink transmission resources and a power-saving configuration, wherein the start position, end position, and/or length of the measurement ranges are derived from the power-saving configuration and may be dynamically adjusted using a scaling factor associated with discontinuous transmission parameters or channel priority. The applicant could also add concepts requiring that CBR measurement be performed only during UE active periods defined by sidelink discontinuous transmission configurations, measurement timers, transmission timers, reception timers, pending data conditions, or HARQ-related conditions, rather than merely in identified measurement slots. Additional disclosed concepts include supporting multiple discontinuous transmission configurations and determining active periods based on intersections or unions of their active periods, performing measurements only within resource ranges that satisfy power-saving conditions, and maintaining accurate sidelink channel busy ratio or channel occupancy ratio estimation despite reduced monitoring activity so that adaptive transmission decisions can be made while minimizing power consumption.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Shilov et al. (US 20240205738 A1)
Deng et al. (US 20240340959 A1)
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/ANDREW SHAJI KURIAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/IQBAL ZAIDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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