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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/04/2025 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement submitted on 09/19/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Status of Claims
The following non-final office action is in response to the Response After Final Action filed on 11/05/2025, in which a RCE was subsequently filed on 12/04/2025.
Claims 9-14 and 16-18 are pending and have been examined.
Claims 1-8 and 15 are canceled.
Claims 9-14 and 16-18 are either amended directly or via a claim they depend from.
Claims 9-14 and 16-18 are rejected.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the claim rejections under 35 § USC 103: Applicant’s arguments and corresponding amendments, see pages 6-9, filed on 11/05/2025, with respect to the rejections of claims 9-14 and 16-18 under 35 § USC 103 have been fully considered and are moot in view of the amendments. As per discussed in the interview conducted on 10/27/2025, previously cited references Liu et al. (CN 106685472 A, hereinafter Kim) in view of Kim. (US 2019/0342061 A, hereinafter Kim) do not explicitly teach the limitations of “a transmitting signal of the subscriber … wherein the transmitting signal is temporarily synchronized with the superimposition signal,” as amended into independent claims 9 and 16. However, upon further consideration, new grounds of rejection have been made in view of over Liu in view of Kim, further in view of Shattil. (US 2022/0295492 A1, hereinafter Shattil)
Objections to the Specification
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because it exceeds 150 words. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 9-10,13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al., (CN106685472A, hereinafter Liu), in view of Kim et al., (US 2019/0342061 A1, hereinafter Kim) further in view of Shattil. (US 2022/0295492 A1, hereinafter Shattil)
Claim 9 Discloses: (Currently Amended)
“A method comprising: emitting, by a transmitting circuit of a vehicle, a transmitted urgent message in a radio channel”
Liu teaches, (DESCRIPTION, Line 10) “A low-latency and high-reliability transmission method for vehicle emergency safety information,” and that, (Paragraph [0012]) “The vehicle uses the spreading code selected in step 1) to spread the generated emergency safety information, maps the spreading code chips to the subcarriers of the vehicle communication frequency band, and non-orthogonally superimposes them with the non-emergency information scheduled on the subcarriers.”
“… , and wherein the normal message is emitted in the radio channel by a subscriber of a radio network that is different from the vehicle;”
Liu teaches an example comprising that, (Paragraph [0080], Lines 507-518) “At some point, vehicle 1 suddenly has a flat tire and needs to urgently notify a neighboring vehicle. Assume that vehicle 5 is currently broadcasting non-emergency information, occupying the 1st to 10th RBs of the vehicle communication frequency band, and the pilot signal is sent using the single antenna downlink reference signal mapping pattern specified in 36.211. After vehicle 1 generates tire blowout information, it uses its spreading code to spread the signal and directly maps it to all subcarriers of the 2M bandwidth for transmission. Its pilot signal also uses the single antenna downlink reference signal mapping pattern specified in 36.211 on each RB. In this way, the emergency safety information of vehicle 1 will be non-orthogonally superimposed with the non-emergency information of vehicle 5 on the 1st to 10th RBs, and will be strongly interfered by the nonemergency information of vehicle 5, but will not be interfered on other RBs.”
“receiving, from the radio channel, by a respective receiving circuit of the vehicle,”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0053], Lines 309-310) “The vehicle is equipped with a cellular network interface and can act as a mobile terminal to transmit and receive data, as shown in Figure 1.”
“a superimposition signal that includes the normal message and a received urgent message;”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0041], Lines 244-246) “Emergency safety information is mapped onto subcarriers after direct sequence spread spectrum. The receiving vehicle will receive a non-orthogonal superposition signal of emergency safety information and non-emergency information.”
“reconstructing the normal message from the superimposition signal; modeling a signal portion of the normal message in the superimposition signal based on the reconstructed normal message … ascertaining a residual signal based on the superimposition signal and the modeled signal portion of the normal message, wherein the residual signal describes a difference between the superimposition signal and the modeled signal portion … and reconstructing the received urgent message based on the residual signal
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0014], Lines 101-103) “The neighboring vehicle receives the signal transmitted on the subcarrier in step 2) after channel attenuation, processes the received signal using an iterative interference cancellation algorithm, and obtains the emergency safety information using the spread spectrum code obtained in step 3).”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0035], Lines 208-210) The neighboring vehicle regards the emergency safety information as noise on the subcarrier where the non-emergency information is scheduled, obtains the initial non-emergency information, and starts to enter the loop, recording the initial loop number as 0;”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0036], Lines 215-218) “After the neighboring vehicle subtracts the non-emergency information from the received signal in step 41), the neighboring vehicle uses the spreading code of the sending vehicle of the emergency safety information obtained in step 3) to despread and obtain the emergency safety information corresponding to the corresponding subcarrier;”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0037], Lines 222-224) “The neighboring vehicle subtracts the emergency safety information corresponding to the corresponding subcarrier obtained in step 43) from the received signal in step 41), and demodulates the received signal to obtain the non-emergency information.”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0077]) “After detecting the vehicle sending the emergency safety information, the receiving vehicle uses an iterative interference elimination algorithm to first treat the emergency safety signal as noise and normally receive the signal of the dispatched vehicle. Then, the signal of the scheduled vehicle is subtracted from the corresponding subcarrier, and the spread spectrum code of the vehicle sending the emergency safety information is used to despread the signals on all subcarriers and demodulate to obtain the emergency safety information. The demodulated emergency safety information is then used to re-demodulate the non-emergency information from the superimposed signal. In order to obtain more accurate signal reception, the above process will be iterated several times. In the simulation, the bit error rate will converge to a stable value after a maximum of 4 iterations.”
Liu does not teach the following limitations. However, secondary reference Kim does teach the following limitations.
“with a transmission level that is less than a transmission level of a normal message,”
Kim teaches, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 1-11) “Referring to FIG. 10, different UE groups sharing the same resource may be present. The eNB may designate a specific resource shared by a plurality of UEs and designate a rule of using resources for the UEs. To cause each UE group to use a different RS resource and well support SIC for signals of UEs belonging to different UE groups on UL, each UE group may have different transmission power. In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority. For example, a UE group having a high priority may transmit a signal at higher power. The eNB first performs decoding with respect to signals transmitted at high power by UE(s), i.e., signals received at higher power by the eNB, and performs SIC with respect to all received signals using the decoded signals to demodulate a signal received at power of the next level.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would be understand that based on upon the disclosure of Kim, a UE group having a lower priority may optionally be selected as having a higher transmission level depending on a desired outcome.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the method of transmitting emergency messages among vehicles of taught by Liu, with the methodology of demodulating signals based on power levels as taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining the references would be to utilize different power transmission levels to demarcate signals based upon their priority. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 7-10) “In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority.”
“wherein the transmission level of the transmitted urgent message is adjusted by controlling a modem of the transmitting circuit and/or by switching off an antenna compensation circuit”
Kim teaches, (Paragraph [0045], Lines 1-9) “In the present invention, a user equipment (UE) may be a fixed or mobile device. Examples of the UE include various devices that transmit and receive user data and/or various kinds of control information to and from a base station (BS). The UE may be referred to as a terminal equipment (TE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a user terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, etc.”
Kim additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0068], Lines 1-4) “The control information transmitted through the PDCCH will be referred to as downlink control information (DCI). The DCI includes resource allocation information for a UE or UE group and other control information.”
Kim additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0068], Lines 16-24) “Combination selected from control information such as a hopping flag, RB allocation, modulation coding scheme (MCS), redundancy version (RV), new data indicator (NDI), transmit power control (TPC), cyclic shift, cyclic shift demodulation reference signal (DM RS), UL index, channel quality information (CQI) request, DL assignment index, HARQ process number, transmitted precoding matrix indicator (TPMI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI) information is transmitted to the UE as the DCI.” Transmit Power Control (TPC) is a mechanism in wireless communication systems that dynamically adjusts the transmit power of a device.
Therefore, it would be additionally obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to additionally combine with the method of adjusting a transmission level of a modem as taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining with Kim would be to utilize the well-known method of dynamic modem adjustment to obtain the transmission power levels corresponding to priority levels as previously discussed. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 7-10) “In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority.”
“and a transmitting signal of the subscriber; … , and wherein the transmitting signal is temporarily synchronized with the superimposition signal;”
Liu and Kim do not explicitly teach generating a transmitting signal of the subscriber which is temporarily synchronized with the superimposition signal as recited in the previous limitation. However, arriving at the preceding limitation would have been obvious in view of knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill in the art such as, for example, the disclosure taught in Shattil.
Shattil teaches, (Paragraph [0002]) “Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless communication networks, and more particularly, to precoding multicarrier waveforms for … or non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA),” and that, (Paragraph [0008]) “Aspects disclosed herein are broadly applicable to wireless standards and use case families disclosed herein, including (but not limited to) … vehicular ad-hoc networks.”
Shattil additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0093], Lines 18-28) “The uplink grant is communicated to an uplink traffic channel processor, such as a PUSCH processor 603, which synthesizes the transmission signal to be transmitted in the network. The pulse-shaping grant may be an explicit grant, such as a roll-off factor, or an implicit grant, such as excess resources relative to the amount of data to be transmitted per the BSR and the MCI. The pulse shape information is conveyed to the PUSCH processor 603, which receives the data to be transmitted (e.g., from a data buffer), control information, and possibly CSI,” wherein, (Paragraph [0101], Lines 3-7) “A UE buffer receives data to transmit 721, which prompts the UE to select a pulse shape and generate a transmission signal 722 therefrom. The transmission signal may be a NOMA signal,” and that, (Paragraph [0022], Lines 1-10) “In some examples of method … individual transmissions from separate devices can produce a multiplexed data stream when received by a receiver. NOMA DFT-s-OFDM codewords include sparse DFT-s-OFDM codewords that overlap in the code space, and therefore can be identified upon reception of the multiplexed data stream using a low complexity algorithm, such as … successive interference cancellation (SIC),” as well as, (Paragraph [0063], Lines 25-30) “A corresponding receiver might perform complementary operations in reverse order to those of the transmitter, such as OFDM demodulation (IFFT), subcarrier de-mapping, DFT-s-OFDM de-spreading followed by de-spreading first spread symbols, and then NOMA reception.”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to further combine the vehicle emergency signal superimposition system of Liu comprising a transmitting and superimposition signal, with transmission power control of Kim, and reproducing NOMA artificial signals as part of a vehicle ad-hoc network while buffering (temporarily synchronized) the received signal as presented in Shattil, in order to yield predictable results.
Combining the references would yield the well-known benefits/features of NOMA systems to retransmit artificial signals to neighboring vehicles as part of a vehicular ad-hoc network.
Claim 10 Discloses (Currently Amended)
“The method of claim 9, further comprising: reproducing [[a]]the transmitting signal of the subscriber for modeling the signal portion from message data of the reconstructed normal message;”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0014], Lines 10-103) “The neighboring vehicle receives the signal transmitted on the subcarrier in step 2) after channel attenuation, processes the received signal using an iterative interference cancellation algorithm, and obtains the emergency safety information using the spread spectrum code obtained in step 3.”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0077], Lines 471-479) “After detecting the vehicle sending the emergency safety information, the receiving vehicle uses an iterative interference elimination algorithm to first treat the emergency safety signal as noise and normally receive the signal of the dispatched vehicle. Then, the signal of the scheduled vehicle is subtracted from the corresponding subcarrier, and the spread spectrum code of the vehicle sending the emergency safety information is used to despread the signals on all subcarriers and demodulate to obtain the emergency safety information. The demodulated emergency safety information is then used to re-demodulate the non-emergency information from the superimposed signal. In order to obtain more accurate signal reception, the above process will be iterated several times. In the simulation, the bit error rate will converge to a stable value after a maximum of 4 iterations.”
“and adapting the reproduced transmitting signal to a reception level of the superimposition signal at the receiving circuit to ascertain the signal portion.”
Liu does not explicitly teach the preceding limitation with its recitation of an iterative interference cancellation algorithm. Kim does teach the preceding limitation.
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0014], Lines 10-103) “The neighboring vehicle receives the signal transmitted on the subcarrier in step 2) after channel attenuation, processes the received signal using an iterative interference cancellation algorithm, and obtains the emergency safety information using the spread spectrum code obtained in step 3.”
The receiver uses a successive interference cancellation algorithm, which is an example of an iterative interference cancellation algorithm, to decode the superimposed signal. This particular algorithm first decodes the user with the strongest signal, effectively removing it from the received signal. By decoding the signals in order of their power levels, the receiver effectively adapts the reproduced transmitting signal to the reception level of the superimposed signal.
Therefore, it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine the iterative interference cancellation algorithm taught by Liu, with the specific SIC algorithm taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining the references would be to demodulate the signals by their applicable power levels to separate the urgent and normal signals. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0019], Lines 11-6) “The eNB first performs decoding with respect to signals transmitted at high power by UE(s), i.e., signals received at higher power by the eNB, and performs SIC with respect to all received signals using the decoded signals to demodulate a signal received at power of the next level.”
Claim 13 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The method of claim 9, wherein the transmission level of the transmitted urgent message is adjusted lower than the transmission level of the normal message by a factor of 6 decibels to 10 decibels.”
Liu does not teach the limitations of claim 13. However, Kim does teach the limitations of claim 13.
Kim teaches, (Paragraph [0119]) “Referring to FIG. 10, different UE groups sharing the same resource may be present. The eNB may designate a specific resource shared by a plurality of UEs and designate a rule of using resources for the UEs. To cause each UE group to use a different RS resource and well support SIC for signals of UEs belonging to different UE groups on UL, each UE group may have different transmission power. In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority … and performs SIC with respect to all received signals using the decoded signals to demodulate a signal received at power of the next level. Referring to FIG. 10, the eNB corresponding to the receiving device searches for a DM-RS position of UE group 1 under the assumption that UE group 1 is present to first decode data of UE group 1.”
Kim additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0121], Lines 1-3) “Each UE group may have a different transmission power offset value. The following table shows different transmission power offset values of UE groups.
PNG
media_image1.png
180
432
media_image1.png
Greyscale
In Table 1, UE group #3 comprises a power offset factor of 6 dBs less than UE group #1.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the method of transmitting emergency messages among vehicles of taught by Liu, with the transmission level adjustment taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining the references would be to utilize different power transmissions level to demarcate signals based upon their priority. For example, higher priority could be applied to the urgent signals. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 7-10) “In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority.”
Claim 16 Discloses: (Currently Amended)
“A motor vehicle comprising: a transmitting circuit, wherein the transmitting circuit comprises a control device that is configured to:”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0053], Lines 309-310) “The vehicle is equipped with a cellular network interface and can act as a mobile terminal to transmit and receive data, as shown in Figure 1,” and that, (Paragraph [0012]) “The vehicle uses the spreading code selected in step 1) to spread the generated emergency safety information, maps the spreading code chips to the subcarriers of the vehicle communication frequency band, and non-orthogonally superimposes them with the non-emergency information scheduled on the subcarriers.”
“detect whether a radio channel of a radio network is occupied by a transfer of a normal message of a subscriber of a radio network that is different from the vehicle; when the normal message of the subscriber is detected as occupying the radio channel, emit an urgent message in the radio channel … wherein the normal message is emitted in the radio channel by the subscriber;”
Liu teaches an example comprising that, (Paragraph [0080], Lines 507-518) “At some point, vehicle 1 suddenly has a flat tire and needs to urgently notify a neighboring vehicle. Assume that vehicle 5 is currently broadcasting non-emergency information, occupying the 1st to 10th RBs of the vehicle communication frequency band, and the pilot signal is sent using the single antenna downlink reference signal mapping pattern specified in 36.211. After vehicle 1 generates tire blowout information, it uses its spreading code to spread the signal and directly maps it to all subcarriers of the 2M bandwidth for transmission. Its pilot signal also uses the single antenna downlink reference signal mapping pattern specified in 36.211 on each RB. In this way, the emergency safety information of vehicle 1 will be non-orthogonally superimposed with the non-emergency information of vehicle 5 on the 1st to 10th RBs, and will be strongly interfered by the nonemergency information of vehicle 5, but will not be interfered on other RBs.”
“a receiving circuit, wherein the receiving circuit comprises the control device that is configured to:”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0053], Lines 309-310) “The vehicle is equipped with a cellular network interface and can act as a mobile terminal to transmit and receive data, as shown in Figure 1.”
“receive a superimposition signal that includes another normal message and another urgent message from the radio channel;”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0067]) “On the pilot subcarrier of the vehicle communication frequency band, the signal received by the neighboring vehicle is the superposition of the pilot of the vehicle sending the emergency safety information and the pilot of the vehicle scheduled on this resource block.”
“reconstruct the other normal message from the superimposition signal; model a signal portion of the other normal message in the superimposition signal based on the reconstructed the other normal message … ascertain a residual signal based on the superimposition signal and the modeled signal portion of the other normal message, wherein the residual signal describes a difference between the superimposition signal and the modeled signal portion … and reconstruct the other urgent message based on the residual signal
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0014], Lines 101-103) “The neighboring vehicle receives the signal transmitted on the subcarrier in step 2) after channel attenuation, processes the received signal using an iterative interference cancellation algorithm, and obtains the emergency safety information using the spread spectrum code obtained in step 3).”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0035], Lines 208-210) The neighboring vehicle regards the emergency safety information as noise on the subcarrier where the non-emergency information is scheduled, obtains the initial non-emergency information, and starts to enter the loop, recording the initial loop number as 0;”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0036, Lines 215-218) “After the neighboring vehicle subtracts the non-emergency information from the received signal in step 41), the neighboring vehicle uses the spreading code of the sending vehicle of the emergency safety information obtained in step 3) to despread and obtain the emergency safety information corresponding to the corresponding subcarrier;”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0037], Lines 222-224) “The neighboring vehicle subtracts the emergency safety information corresponding to the corresponding subcarrier obtained in step 43) from the received signal in step 41), and demodulates the received signal to obtain the non-emergency information;”
Liu additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0077]) “After detecting the vehicle sending the emergency safety information, the receiving vehicle uses an iterative interference elimination algorithm to first treat the emergency safety signal as noise and normally receive the signal of the dispatched vehicle. Then, the signal of the scheduled vehicle is subtracted from the corresponding subcarrier, and the spread spectrum code of the vehicle sending the emergency safety information is used to despread the signals on all subcarriers and demodulate to obtain the emergency safety information. The demodulated emergency safety information is then used to re-demodulate the non-emergency information from the superimposed signal. In order to obtain more accurate signal reception, the above process will be iterated several times. In the simulation, the bit error rate will converge to a stable value after a maximum of 4 iterations.”
Liu does not teach the following limitations. However, secondary reference Kim does teach the following limitations.
“with a transmission level that is less than a transmission level of the normal message;”
Kim teaches, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 1-11) “Referring to FIG. 10, different UE groups sharing the same resource may be present. The eNB may designate a specific resource shared by a plurality of UEs and designate a rule of using resources for the UEs. To cause each UE group to use a different RS resource and well support SIC for signals of UEs belonging to different UE groups on UL, each UE group may have different transmission power. In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority. For example, a UE group having a high priority may transmit a signal at higher power. The eNB first performs decoding with respect to signals transmitted at high power by UE(s), i.e., signals received at higher power by the eNB, and performs SIC with respect to all received signals using the decoded signals to demodulate a signal received at power of the next level.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would be understand that based on upon the disclosure of Kim, a UE group having a lower priority may optionally be selected as having a higher transmission level depending on a desired outcome.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the method of transmitting emergency messages among vehicles of taught by Liu, with the methodology of demodulating signals based on power levels as taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining the references would be to utilize different power transmission levels to demarcate signals based upon their priority. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 7-10) “In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority.”
“and adjust the transmission level of the urgent message by controlling a modem of the transmitting circuit, and/or by switching off an antenna compensation circuit:”
Kim teaches, (Paragraph [0045], Lines 1-9) “In the present invention, a user equipment (UE) may be a fixed or mobile device. Examples of the UE include various devices that transmit and receive user data and/or various kinds of control information to and from a base station (BS). The UE may be referred to as a terminal equipment (TE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile terminal (MT), a user terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a handheld device, etc.”
Kim additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0068], Lines 1-4) “The control information transmitted through the PDCCH will be referred to as downlink control information (DCI). The DCI includes resource allocation information for a UE or UE group and other control information.”
Kim additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0068], Lines 16-24) “Combination selected from control information such as a hopping flag, RB allocation, modulation coding scheme (MCS), redundancy version (RV), new data indicator (NDI), transmit power control (TPC), cyclic shift, cyclic shift demodulation reference signal (DM RS), UL index, channel quality information (CQI) request, DL assignment index, HARQ process number, transmitted precoding matrix indicator (TPMI), precoding matrix indicator (PMI) information is transmitted to the UE as the DCI.” Transmit Power Control (TPC) is a mechanism in wireless communication systems that dynamically adjusts the transmit power of a device.
Therefore, it would be additionally obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to additionally combine with the method of adjusting a transmission level of a modem as taught by Kim, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining with Kim would be to utilize the well-known method of dynamic modem adjustment to obtain the transmission power levels corresponding to priority levels as previously discussed. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 7-10) “In other words, different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group may differ according to priority.”
“and a transmitting signal of the subscriber; … , and wherein the transmitting signal is temporarily synchronized with the superimposition signal;”
Liu and Kim do not explicitly teach generating a transmitting signal of the subscriber which is temporarily synchronized with the superimposition signal as recited in the previous limitation. However, arriving at the preceding limitation would have been obvious in view of knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill in the art such as, for example, the disclosure taught in Shattil.
Shattil teaches, (Paragraph [0002]) “Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless communication networks, and more particularly, to precoding multicarrier waveforms for … or non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA),” and that, (Paragraph [0008]) “Aspects disclosed herein are broadly applicable to wireless standards and use case families disclosed herein, including (but not limited to) cellular, mobile broadband, vehicular ad-hoc networks.”
Shattil teaches, (Paragraph [0093], Lines 18-28) “The uplink grant is communicated to an uplink traffic channel processor, such as a PUSCH processor 603, which synthesizes the transmission signal to be transmitted in the network. The pulse-shaping grant may be an explicit grant, such as a roll-off factor, or an implicit grant, such as excess resources relative to the amount of data to be transmitted per the BSR and the MCI. The pulse shape information is conveyed to the PUSCH processor 603, which receives the data to be transmitted (e.g., from a data buffer), control information, and possibly CSI,” wherein, (Paragraph [0101], Lines 3-7) “A UE buffer receives data to transmit 721, which prompts the UE to select a pulse shape and generate a transmission signal 722 therefrom. The transmission signal may be a NOMA signal,” and that, (Paragraph [0022], Lines 1-10) “In some examples of method … individual transmissions from separate devices can produce a multiplexed data stream when received by a receiver. NOMA DFT-s-OFDM codewords include sparse DFT-s-OFDM codewords that overlap in the code space, and therefore can be identified upon reception of the multiplexed data stream using a low complexity algorithm, such as … successive interference cancellation (SIC),” as well as, (Paragraph [0063], Lines 25-30) “A corresponding receiver might perform complementary operations in reverse order to those of the transmitter, such as OFDM demodulation (IFFT), subcarrier de-mapping, DFT-s-OFDM de-spreading followed by de-spreading first spread symbols, and then NOMA reception.”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to further combine the vehicle emergency signal superimposition system of Liu comprising a transmitting and superimposition signal, with transmission power control of Kim, and reproducing NOMA artificial signals as part of a vehicle ad-hoc network while buffering (temporarily synchronized) the received signal as presented in Shattil, in order to yield predictable results.
Combining the references would yield the well-known benefits/features of NOMA systems to retransmit artificial signals to neighboring vehicles as part of a vehicular ad-hoc network.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Kim, further in view of Shattil, further in view of Kim et al. (US 2018/0110002 A1, hereinafter Kim_D2)
Claim 11 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The method of claim 9, wherein the normal message is transmitted in a preset time slot of a synchronous data transfer in the radio network,”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0064], Lines 398-399) “After a vehicle generates non-emergency information, it applies for wireless resources from the cellular network and broadcasts it to surrounding vehicles on the scheduled wireless channel.”
“… and determining, by the receiving circuit, if the received urgent message is included in the superposition signal”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0036, Lines 215-218) “After the neighboring vehicle subtracts the non-emergency information from the received signal in step 41), the neighboring vehicle uses the spreading code of the sending vehicle of the emergency safety information obtained in step 3) to despread and obtain the emergency safety information corresponding to the corresponding subcarrier;”
Liu, Kim, and Shattil do not teach the following limitations. However, Kim_D2 does teach the following limitations.
“the method further comprising: transmitting, by the transmitting circuit, the transmitted urgent message with a predetermined time offset with respect to a start point of time of the preset time slot;”
Kim_D2 teaches, (Abstract, Lines 3-8) “The present disclosure is based on 5G communication technologies and IoT related technologies, and may be applied to intelligent services such as smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, smart or connected cars, health care, digital education, retail, and security and safety.”
Kim_D2 additionally teaches (Paragraph [0087]) “As an example, the type of a message to be acquired may affect the decoding start point. The message may include a signal (e.g. data or control information). For example, among the messages exchanged between the base station and the UE in the LTE system, there are urgent messages, such as emergency calls, and disaster alarms (e.g. ETWS, CMAS). It is desirable that these messages are known to the user as soon as possible. Hence, if the message to be received is of such type, decoding may be attempted in advance from a point corresponding to the message type. To receive a message of such type, if there is a small probability of decoding success, decoding may be started from that point in time. To receive a message of such type, the decoding period 1130 can also be set shorter. In various embodiments, the message type can also be used as a measure to determine whether to apply the decoding start point and decoding period. For example, in one embodiment, when the message type is one of preset types, decoding may be performed by applying the decoding start point and decoding period.”
“by examining a signal section in the superposition signal for a presence of a predetermined header of a possible urgent message,”
Kim_D2 teaches, (Paragraph [0049], Lines 1-6) “With reference to FIG. 2, in the LTE system, a UE and an ENB each include a wireless protocol stack composed of PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) 205 or 240, RLC (Radio Link Control) 210 or 235, and MAC (Medium Access Control) 215 or 230. The PDCP 205 or 240 performs compression and decompression of IP headers.”
“wherein the signal section corresponds to the start point of time of the preset time slot plus the predetermined time offset.”
Kim_D2 teaches, (Paragraph [0165], Lines 1-6) “In one embodiment, the controller 2220 may determine whether a message to be received is of a given message type (e.g. emergency message). Upon determining that the message to be received is of the given message type, the controller 2220 may determine the decoding start point in accordance with the message type.”
Kim_D2 additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0095], Lines 12-18) “In addition, the decoding period 1225 may be set somewhat longer in order to reduce the load due to decoding. As described before, for urgent messages such as emergency calls and emergency alarms (e.g. ETWS, CMAS), decoding can be started from the point at which the repeated transmission starts (1220) so that information can be obtained as soon as possible.”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to additionally combine Liu, Kim, and Shattil with the methodology of Kim_D2 which describes identifying urgent messages via a header and implementing a time offset accordingly, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for doing so would be to mitigate the delay for receiving important, urgent, and/or emergency information to improve safety. As Kim describes, (Paragraph [0087], Lines 4-8) “among the messages exchanged between the base station and the UE in the LTE system, there are urgent messages, such as emergency calls, and disaster alarms (e.g. ETWS, CMAS). It is desirable that these messages are known to the user as soon as possible.”
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Kim, further in view of Shattil, further in view of Yeo et al. (US 2021/0345360 A1, hereinafter Yeo).
Claim 12 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The method of claim 9, wherein the normal message is transmitted using multiple modulation coding schemes or a numerology concept,”
Liu, Kim, and Shattil do not teach the limitations of claim 12. Yeo does teach the limitations of claim 12.
Yeo teaches (Abstract, Lines 10-17) “The present disclosure relates to a transmission method of a terminal comprising: determining a simultaneous transmission of first and second communication-based sidelink signals; determining a priority of the first and second communication-based sidelink signals in case that the simultaneous transmission is configured; and processing the first and second communication-based sidelink signals on the basis of the priority.”
Yeo additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0003], Lines 21-26) “In the 5G system, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have also been developed.”
Yeo additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0104]) “A single terminal may operate each of LTE V2X and NR V2X in different frequency bands, or in one identical frequency band. To this end, the terminal may be a terminal which accesses an LTE base station and operates, a terminal which accesses an NR base station and operates, or a terminal for transmitting or receiving an LTE V2X- or NR V2X-related signal in the sidelink, without accessing any base station.”
“and wherein transmitting the transmitted urgent message uses coding with a greatest redundancy scheme or a rateless coding scheme.”
Yeo teaches, (Paragraph [0052], Lines 1-5 & Paragraph [0059]) “In the NR system, scheduling information on downlink data or uplink data is transferred from a base station to a terminal through downlink control information (DCI). The DCI is defined according to various formats, and may indicate … a modulation scheme and a coding rate used for data transmission.”
Yeo additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0089], Lines 1-9) “In FIG. 5, a transport block is divided into multiple code blocks, and then bits or symbols 5-04 located at the same position in each of the multiple code blocks are encoded into a second channel code to generate parity bits or symbols 5-06 (indicated by reference numeral 5-02). Later, CRCs may be added to the code blocks and parity code blocks generated by the second channel code encoding, respectively (indicated by reference numerals 5-08 and 5-10).”
Yeo additionally teaches, (Paragraph [0089], Lines 18-23) “In the disclosure, the second code may include, for example, a Reed-Solomon code, a BCH code, a raptor code, and a parity bit generation code. However, it is not limited thereto and the disclosure may be applied by using various other channel codes as the second channel code.”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the method of transmitting emergency messages among vehicles of taught by Liu, with the multiple modulation coding schemes of Yeo, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combining the references would to utilize multiple different modulation techniques based on what is required based on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel; (PDSCH) information that pertains to each UE. As Yeo describes, (Paragraph [0073], Lines 1-5) “Via an MCS in the control information included in the DCI, a base station may report, to a terminal, the modulation scheme applied to a PDSCH to be transmitted, and the size (transport block size (TBS)) of data to be transmitted.” The additional rationale for using a particular coding scheme would be to mitigate signal error. Yeo describes that it uses, (Paragraph [0073], Line 7) “channel coding for error correction.”
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Kim, further in view of Shattil, further in view of Alieiev et al. (EP 3614355 A1, hereinafter Alieiev).
Claim 14 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The method of claim 9, wherein the vehicle operates the radio network as an ad-hoc network for a cooperative driving operation,”
Liu teaches, (Paragraph [0006], Lines 51-55) “in the self-organizing mode based on the 802.11p protocol, … As for the terminal direct communication (D2D) method based on cellular networks,” with 801.11p being a protocol used in ad-hoc networks and D2D allows devices to communicate with each other without relying on central infrastructure. This is a key characteristic of an ad-hoc network.
In addition, Alieiev teaches, (Page 2, Column 1, Lines 10-21) “The coordinated driving of a group of vehicles (platooning) is a field of research and development. To coordinate the vehicles, in many systems, direct vehicle-to-vehicle messages are used. Using such direct messages, a velocity and/or a direction of driving and some other parameters of the vehicles of the group of vehicles can be coordinated. Such direct messages are often based on a Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), or more general, Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication protocol. One of the wireless transmission standards backing V2X communication is based on IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard 802.11p.”
“and wherein the transmitted urgent message indicates that the vehicle terminates the cooperative driving operation or leaves the ad-hoc network.”
Liu and Kim do not teach the preceding limitation. However, Alieiev does teach the preceding limitation.
Alieiev teaches, (Page 11, Column 19, Lines 2-4) “Figs. 5a to 5e show schematic diagrams and a table of exemplary message transmissions of a platoon leave maneuver in a platooning scenario.”
Alieiev additionally teaches, (Page 11, Column 19, Lines 16-17) “In step 1, Veh. 5(A) transmits a leave request to Veh. 1(A).”
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the emergency safety information transmission system of Liu with the transmission of a leave request in an ad-hoc network taught by Alieiev, in order to yield predictable results.
The rationale for combing the references would be to explicitly designate a vehicle leaving a platoon as an urgent message to improve the safety and efficiency of vehicles.
As Alieiev describes, (Page 11, Column 19, Lines 29-38) “The a-case may correspond to dealing with a (cooperative) intruder, which may be more general. The b-case (steps 4b to 22b) may be taken if the platoon cannot be preserved. The platoon may split into platoons A and B, vehicle 5(A) may leave, and the platoons A and B may be joined (merged) again. This, the b-case may be a combination of split and merge. After either operations are finished, in step X, Veh. 1(A) may inform its followers about the return to platoon normal convoying state.” Alieiev goes on to describe, (Page 12, Column, 21, Lines 20-29) “At least some embodiments provide a coordination/Interaction approach between the head (e.g. the leading vehicle) and the members (intra-platooning) and among platoons (inter-platoon for high density platooning (e.g. of the platoon of vehicles), where safety and efficiency may be of high priority. The head may interact periodically with members, by proposing configuration parameters supports the steady state of the platoon as well as the maneuvers whenever they are triggered.” Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand to designate a vehicle leaving a platoon’s message as urgent in order to quickly and efficiently allow the platoon to implement maneuvers such as splitting and merging to effectively return to a safe and efficient steady state configuration.
Claims 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Kim, further in view of Shattil, further in view of Ping. (US 20190140672 A1, hereinafter Ping) Ping is relevant to the Applicant’s disclosure due to it being directed to a known manner in the art to adjust a transmission level by switching off an antenna compensation circuit.
Claim 17 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The method of claim 9, wherein the transmission level of the transmitted urgent message is adjusted by switching off the antenna compensation circuit.”
Liu does not teach the preceding limitation.
However, Liu does teach, (Paragraph [0081], lines 528-529) “sending emergency safety information.”
Kim additionally does not teach the preceding limitation. However, Kim does teach a, (Paragraph [0116], Lines 4-7) “UE grouping method of a NOMA scheme and RS position differentiation and transmission power differentiation methods for each UE group,” such as, (Paragraph [0068], Line 19) “transmit power control (TPC),” and that, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 6-9) “each UE group may have different transmission power … different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group.”
However, Kim does not explicitly teach utilizing switching off an antenna compensation circuit to change the transmission level.
Shattil does not teach the preceding limitation.
Ping does teach switching off an antenna compensation circuit to achieve a particular transmission level as part of a radio frequency transmission circuit.
Ping teaches, (Paragraph [0054]) “Exemplarily, a working process of the radio frequency transmission circuit is illustrated by the matching circuit of FIG. 9. In the adjustment process, under a transmission power of 20 dBm, a matching loop 1 of the adjustable matching network is adjusted, and each of contacts for switches SW11, SW12, SW13 to be closed to are selected for the matching loop 1, respectively, such as the switch SW11 is closed to a contact a11, the switch SW12 is closed to a contact a12, and the switch SW13 is closed to a contact a13, thus capacitors C11, C14 and an inductor L11 are adjusted to be optimally matched, and positions of the contacts at this time are recorded, that is, the adjusted matching loop 1 is saved. Under a transmission power of 15 dBm, contacts b11, b12 and b13 for the switches SW11, SW12, SW13 to be closed to are selected for the matching loop 2, that as the switch SW11 is closed to the contact b11, the switch SW12 is closed to the contact b12, and the switch SW13 is closed to the contact b13, thus capacitors C12, C15 and an inductor L12 are adjusted to the be optimally matched, and positions of the contacts at this time are recorded, that is, the adjusted matching loop 2 is saved … Then, during operation of the radio frequency transmission circuit, the control unit selects corresponding contacts according to the received transmission power.”
Under broadest reasonable interpretation, switching between matching loops of a transmission circuit is an example of switching off an antenna compensation circuit for the purposes of impedance matching towards a desired transmission level.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the vehicle transmission system capable of performing superimposition of an emergency and non-emergency signal and additional capability of demodulating said signals via an iterative cancellation algorithm as taught by Liu, and the Successive iterative cancellation system capable of differentiating signals via their transmission level as taught by Kim, the transmitting signal reproduction of Shattil, and with the teachings of turning off an antenna compensation circuit to achieve a particular transmission level as taught by Ping, in order to yield predictable results.
Combining the references would yield the benefits of utilizing a known method in the art to dynamically adjust transmission levels to create the emergency or non-emergency signals transmitted in the system of Liu. As Ping describes, (Paragraph [0021], Lines 6-8) “matching between the various connected devices needs to be adjusted to optimize various performances related to transmission,” and that, (Paragraph [0061] “An optimal matching loop of transmission loop is directly selected by detecting the transmission power of the transmit circuit, thereby achieving dynamic adjustment of the matching under different transmission powers.”
Claim 18 Discloses: (Previously Presented)
“The motor vehicle of claim 16, wherein the control device is further configured to adjust the transmission level of the urgent message by switching off the antenna compensation circuit.”
Liu does not teach the preceding limitation.
However, Liu does teach, (Paragraph [0081], lines 528-529) “sending emergency safety information.”
Kim additionally does not teach the preceding limitation. However, Kim does teach a, (Paragraph [0116], Lines 4-7) “UE grouping method of a NOMA scheme and RS position differentiation and transmission power differentiation methods for each UE group,” such as, (Paragraph [0068], Line 19) “transmit power control (TPC),” and that, (Paragraph [0119], Lines 6-9) “each UE group may have different transmission power … different UE groups may have different priorities and transmission power usable by each group.”
However, Kim does not explicitly teach utilizing switching off an antenna compensation circuit to change the transmission level.
Shattil does not teach the preceding limitation.
Ping does teach switching off an antenna compensation circuit to achieve a particular transmission level as part of a radio frequency transmission circuit.
Ping teaches, (Paragraph [0054]) “Exemplarily, a working process of the radio frequency transmission circuit is illustrated by the matching circuit of FIG. 9. In the adjustment process, under a transmission power of 20 dBm, a matching loop 1 of the adjustable matching network is adjusted, and each of contacts for switches SW11, SW12, SW13 to be closed to are selected for the matching loop 1, respectively, such as the switch SW11 is closed to a contact a11, the switch SW12 is closed to a contact a12, and the switch SW13 is closed to a contact a13, thus capacitors C11, C14 and an inductor L11 are adjusted to be optimally matched, and positions of the contacts at this time are recorded, that is, the adjusted matching loop 1 is saved. Under a transmission power of 15 dBm, contacts b11, b12 and b13 for the switches SW11, SW12, SW13 to be closed to are selected for the matching loop 2, that as the switch SW11 is closed to the contact b11, the switch SW12 is closed to the contact b12, and the switch SW13 is closed to the contact b13, thus capacitors C12, C15 and an inductor L12 are adjusted to the be optimally matched, and positions of the contacts at this time are recorded, that is, the adjusted matching loop 2 is saved … Then, during operation of the radio frequency transmission circuit, the control unit selects corresponding contacts according to the received transmission power.”
Under broadest reasonable interpretation, switching between matching loops of a transmission circuit is an example of switching off an antenna compensation circuit for the purposes of impedance matching towards a desired transmission level.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the vehicle transmission system capable of performing superimposition of an emergency and non-emergency signal and additional capability of demodulating said signals via an iterative cancellation algorithm as taught by Liu, and the Successive iterative cancellation system capable of differentiating signals via their transmission level as taught by Kim, the transmitting signal reproduction of Shattil, and with the teachings of turning off an antenna compensation circuit to achieve a particular transmission level as taught by Ping, in order to yield predictable results.
Combining the references would yield the benefits of utilizing a known method in the art to dynamically adjust transmission levels to create the emergency or non-emergency signals transmitted in the system of Liu. As Ping describes, (Paragraph [0021], Lines 6-8) “matching between the various connected devices needs to be adjusted to optimize various performances related to transmission,” and that, (Paragraph [0061] “An optimal matching loop of transmission loop is directly selected by detecting the transmission power of the transmit circuit, thereby achieving dynamic adjustment of the matching under different transmission powers.”
RELEVANT, BUT NOT CITED PRIOR ART
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant'sdisclosure.
US 2019/0138018 A1 teaches, (Abstract) “A vehicular autonomous driving system includes a time division multiplexed (TDM) bus, an autonomous driving (AD) controller coupled to the TDM bus, and a plurality of AD sensors coupled to the TDM bus. The AD sensors are configured to collect AD data and transmit collected AD data to the AD controller on the TDM bus in an assigned time slot at a first power level. A first AD sensor of the plurality of AD sensors is configured to, based upon collected AD data, detect an AD emergency event. In response to the detection, the first AD sensor is configured to transmit an AD emergency message on the TDM bus in a non-assigned time slot and at a second power level that exceeds the first power level. The AD sensor may transmit the AD emergency message in a particular sub-slot of the non-assigned time slot.”
US 2017/0201985 A1 teaches, (Paragraph [0009]) “With reference to the second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes the first time offset of the first data frame, and the first time offset represents a time difference between a start moment of the first data frame and a start moment of a data frame in the M second data frames, or the first time offset represents a time difference between a start moment of a subframe in the first data frame and a start moment of a subframe in a data frame in the M second data frames.”
US 2019/0132165 A1 (Table 1 is deemed relevant by the Examiner)
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER V. GENTILE whose telephone number is (703)756-1501. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9-5.
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/ALEXANDER V GENTILE/Examiner, Art Unit 3664
/KITO R ROBINSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3664