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
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-6, 18-21, 22-26 and 28 in the reply to restriction, filed on October 02, 2025 is acknowledged. Claims 9-10, 27 and 29 are withdrawn from consideration
Claims 1-6, 18-21, 22-26 and 28 are currently pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 24, 2025, September 05, 2024, August 22, 2024, August 19, 2024 and February 01, 2023 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 6, 19, 22-24 and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Miao et al. (US 2024/0188044 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Miao discloses a method for sidelink communication in a wireless communication network, performed by a first UE, comprising (Fig. 2, paragraphs 0052-0055 disclose first UE communicates with a second UE using sidelink): initiating a sidelink data transmission session with a second UE which is running in a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mode (Paragraphs 0054-0055 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine a resource selection window 305 for the sidelink transmission 112 from the first terminal device 110 to the second terminal device 120. The first terminal device 110 may determine the duration based on a DRX configuration of the second terminal device 120. The determined one or more resources are to be used by the first terminal device 110 for transmitting the sidelink transmission 112); and selecting a first transmission resource within a first active time of the second UE for transmitting a first data packet of the sidelink data transmission session to the second UE (Paragraphs 0051-0053 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine one or more duration(s) within the resource selection window 305. In general, the one or more durations determined by the first terminal device 110 may be any duration in which the first terminal device 110 may need to avoid the resource selection and the sidelink transmission 112. For example, based on information related to the second terminal device 120, the first terminal device 110 may determine that the second terminal device 120 cannot receive the sidelink transmission 112 during the determined one or more durations. In this event, the first terminal device may need to determine resources for the sidelink transmission 112 within the resource selection window 305 (active time or active duration of the second UE) without the one or more determined durations, so as to ensure that the sidelink transmission 112 can be received by the second terminal device 120. Paragraph 0053 discloses the active and inactive duration of the sidelink DRX mechanism).
Regarding claim 22, claim 22 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1.
Miao discloses a first device for sidelink communication in a wireless communication network (Fig. 2, paragraphs 0052-0055 disclose first UE communicates with a second UE using sidelink), the first device comprising a memory for storing computer instructions and a processor in communication with the memory, wherein, when the processor executes the computer instructions, the processor is configured to cause the first device to (Fig. 11 discloses device 1100 comprises a processor 1110 and a memory 1120 coupled to the processor):
initiating a sidelink data transmission session with a second UE which is running in a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) mode (Paragraphs 0054-0055 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine a resource selection window 305 for the sidelink transmission 112 from the first terminal device 110 to the second terminal device 120. The first terminal device 110 may determine the duration based on a DRX configuration of the second terminal device 120. The determined one or more resources are to be used by the first terminal device 110 for transmitting the sidelink transmission 112); and selecting a first transmission resource within a first active time of the second UE for transmitting a first data packet of the sidelink data transmission session to the second UE (Paragraphs 0051-0053 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine one or more duration(s) within the resource selection window 305. In general, the one or more durations determined by the first terminal device 110 may be any duration in which the first terminal device 110 may need to avoid the resource selection and the sidelink transmission 112. For example, based on information related to the second terminal device 120, the first terminal device 110 may determine that the second terminal device 120 cannot receive the sidelink transmission 112 during the determined one or more durations. In this event, the first terminal device may need to determine resources for the sidelink transmission 112 within the resource selection window 305 (active time or active duration of the second UE) without the one or more determined durations, so as to ensure that the sidelink transmission 112 can be received by the second terminal device 120. The sidelink transmission may be used for transmitting any data or control information associated with sidelink communications, for example, sidelink data or sidelink control information or sidelink feedback information).
Regarding claim 28, claim 28 comprises substantially similar limitations as claimed above in claim 1, claimed as a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable program medium with computer code stored thereupon, the computer code, when executed by one or more processors, causing the one or more processors (Fig. 11 discloses device 1100 comprises a processor 1110 and a memory 1120 coupled to the processor) to implement the steps of claim 1.
Regarding claims 2 and 23, Miao discloses selecting a second transmission resource within a second active time of the second UE for transmitting a subsequent data packet of the sidelink data transmission session to the second UE (Paragraphs 0051-0055 disclose the partial resource selection window without the determined one or more durations may also be referred to as a second resource selection window. Paragraph 0050 disclose the resource selection window 305 can be determined based on the slot n in which the first terminal device 110 determines to transmit the sidelink transmission 112. For example, in the slot n, a higher layer of the first terminal device 110 may request a subset of candidate resources for the sidelink transmission 112, namely, trigger the resource selection for the sidelink transmission 112. In this event, the resource selection window 305 can be determined as [n+T1, n+T2], where the selections of T1 and T2 can be up to UE implementation. In some embodiments, there may be a predefined maximum value and/or a predefined minimum value of each of T1 and T2)
Regarding claims 3 and 24, Miao discloses configuring the sidelink data transmission session with a periodicity tl, wherein tl is equal to or less than a duration of an inactivity timer managed by the second UE, and wherein the inactivity timer is reset by the second UE in response to receiving a subsequent data packet of the sidelink data transmission session (Paragraphs 0050, 0060-0062 disclose the resource selection window 305 can be determined based on the slot n in which the first terminal device 110 determines to transmit the sidelink transmission 112. For example, in the slot n, a higher layer of the first terminal device 110 may request a subset of candidate resources for the sidelink transmission 112, namely, trigger the resource selection for the sidelink transmission 112. In this event, the resource selection window 305 can be determined as [n+T1, n+T2], where the selections of T1 and T2 can be up to UE implementation. In some embodiments, there may be a predefined maximum value and/or a predefined minimum value of each of T1 and T2. Paragraphs 0061-0065 disclose resource selection window 510, the first terminal device 110 may determine an adjusted sidelink DRX configuration of the second terminal device 120 such that the duration (for example, the off-duration 505 of the second terminal device 120) to be excluded from the partial resource selection window 510 is shortened or eliminated. In some embodiments, the adjusted sidelink DRX configuration may be a totally reconfigured sidelink DRX configuration different from the previous sidelink DRX configuration. In some other embodiments, the adjusted sidelink DRX configuration can be a modified version of the previous sidelink DRX configuration).
Regarding claim 6, Miao discloses wherein selecting the first transmission resource comprises: selecting the first transmission resource within the first active time of the second UE for transmitting the first data packet of the sidelink data transmission session to the second UE according to a DRX configuration of the second UE (Paragraphs 0051-0053 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine one or more duration(s) within the resource selection window 305. In general, the one or more durations determined by the first terminal device 110 may be any duration in which the first terminal device 110 may need to avoid the resource selection and the sidelink transmission 112. For example, based on information related to the second terminal device 120, the first terminal device 110 may determine that the second terminal device 120 cannot receive the sidelink transmission 112 during the determined one or more durations. In this event, the first terminal device may need to determine resources for the sidelink transmission 112 within the resource selection window 305 (active time or active duration of the second UE) without the one or more determined durations, so as to ensure that the sidelink transmission 112 can be received by the second terminal device 120. Paragraph 0053 discloses the active and inactive duration of the sidelink DRX mechanism).
Regarding claim 19, Miao discloses before initiating the sidelink data transmission session, the method further comprises: transmitting, to the second UE, a sidelink control information (SCI) message, the SCI message comprising a set of transmission resources to be reserved by the second UE to support the sidelink data transmission session (Paragraph 0050 discloses a UE performs periodic-based partial sensing, at least when the reservation for another Transport Block, TB (when carried in sidelink control information, SCI) is enabled for the resource pool and resource selection or reselection is triggered at slot n, it is up to UE implementation to determine a set of Y candidate slots within a resource selection window. In some embodiments, the resource selection window 305 can be determined based on the slot n in which the first terminal device 110 determines to transmit the sidelink transmission 112);
and selecting the first transmission resource within the first active time of the second UE comprises: selecting the first transmission resource from the set of transmission resources (Paragraphs 0051-0053 disclose the first terminal device 110 may determine one or more duration(s) within the resource selection window 305. In general, the one or more durations determined by the first terminal device 110 may be any duration in which the first terminal device 110 may need to avoid the resource selection and the sidelink transmission 112. For example, based on information related to the second terminal device 120, the first terminal device 110 may determine that the second terminal device 120 cannot receive the sidelink transmission 112 during the determined one or more durations. In this event, the first terminal device may need to determine resources for the sidelink transmission 112 within the resource selection window 305 (active time or active duration of the second UE) without the one or more determined durations, so as to ensure that the sidelink transmission 112 can be received by the second terminal device 120. The sidelink transmission may be used for transmitting any data or control information associated with sidelink communications, for example, sidelink data or sidelink control information or sidelink feedback information).
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 of this title, 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 4-5 and 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miao et al. in view of Hu et al. (US 2024/0073907 A1).
Regarding claims 4 and 25, Miao does specifically disclose wherein the first UE is running in a DRX mode.
In an analogous art, Hu discloses wherein the first UE is running in a DRX mode (Paragraph 0035 discloses the first UE is running in a DRX mode).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Hu to the system of Miao to provide a solution for inter-UE coordination for sidelink DRX UE, where the first DRX configuration can also comprise an identity of the terminal device (Abstract, Hu).
Regarding claims 5 and 26, Miao does not discloses configuring a first logical channel configuration for supporting a first sidelink data transmission to a first destination UE which is running in a DRX mode; and configuring a second logical channel configuration for supporting a second sidelink data transmission to a second destination UE which is not running in the DRX mode.
In an analogous art, Hu discloses configuring a first logical channel configuration for supporting a first sidelink data transmission to a first destination UE which is running in a DRX mode (Paragraph 0035 discloses the first UE is running in a DRX mode); and configuring a second logical channel configuration for supporting a second sidelink data transmission to a second destination UE which is not running in the DRX mode (Paragraph 0034 discloses the assisting UE may determine the preferred set of resources that coincides with the same time as an inactive time period of a DRX cycle implemented by the sidelink peer UE(s) of assisted UE(s), which act as the RX UE (for example, the UEs 120-3 and/or 120-5) in sidelink communication. Similarly, in this case, the sidelink RX UE cannot perform reception on the preferred set of resources. Moreover, when the preferred set of resources determined to be used for SL communication during the inactive time of a DRX cycles implemented by one or both the sidelink TX and RX UEs is not included when performing inter-UE coordination, an available resource set that remains for SL transmission will be significantly reduced leading to resource collision during an active time duration of the DRX cycle).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Hu to the system of Miao to provide a solution for inter-UE coordination for sidelink DRX UE, where the first DRX configuration can also comprise an identity of the terminal device (Abstract, Hu).
Claims 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miao et al. in view of Lu et al. (US 2023/0403729 A1) and further in view of Hu et al.
Regarding claim 18, Miao does not specifically disclose configuring a first logical channel configuration for supporting sidelink data transmissions to a first set of destination UEs running in DRX modes, and a DRX cycle of each of the first set of destination UEs is within a first range; and configuring a second logical channel configuration for supporting sidelink data transmissions to a second set of destination UEs running in DRX modes, and a DRX cycle of each of the second set of destination UEs is within a second range.
In an analogous art, Lu discloses configuring a first logical channel configuration for supporting sidelink data transmissions to a first set of destination UEs running in DRX modes (Paragraph 0095-0097 discloses the fourth device being a device having at least one of a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC CE) or a logical channel with a highest priority from the plurality of second devices; or the fourth device being a device in a DRX activation state on the one or more resources for the sidelink transmission from the plurality of second devices)
and configuring a second logical channel configuration for supporting sidelink data transmissions to a second set of destination UEs running in DRX modes (Paragraph 0095-0097 discloses the fourth device being a device having at least one of a Medium Access Control- Control Element (MAC CE) or a logical channel with a highest priority from the plurality of second devices; or the fourth device being a device in a DRX activation state on the one or more resources for the sidelink transmission from the plurality of second devices).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lu to the system of Miao to provide a resource selection method, according to DRX configuration information of one or more second devices, one or more resources for sidelink transmission to improve the overall performance of the sidelink communication system (Abstract, Lu).
The combination of Miao and Lu does not specifically disclose the mechanism of range, a DRX cycle of each of the first set of destination UEs is within a first range; a DRX cycle of each of the second set of destination UEs is within a second range.
In an analogous art, Hu discloses a DRX cycle of each of the first set of destination UEs is within a first range; a DRX cycle of each of the second set of destination UEs is within a second range
(Paragraph 0038 discloses the communication system 200 can comprise a terminal device 230-1, a terminal device 230-2, . . . , a terminal device 230-M, which can be collectively referred to as “terminal device(s) 230.” The number M can be any suitable integer number. The terminal devices 230 can perform sidelink communications with each other as well as terminal devices 210. As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal devices 210 are within a serving range of the network device 220 and the terminal devices 230 are out of the serving range of the network device 220. Only as an example, as shown in FIG. 2, the terminal device 210-1 can also perform sidelink communications with the terminal device 230-1. Only for the purpose of illustrations, embodiments of the present disclosure are described mainly with the reference to the sidelink communications between the terminal device 210-1 and the terminal device 210-3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Hu to the modified system of Miao and Lu to provide a solution for inter-UE coordination for sidelink DRX UE, where the first DRX configuration can also comprise an identity of the terminal device (Abstract, Hu).
Claims 20-21 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Miao et al. in view of Lu et al. (US 2023/0403729 A1).
Regarding claim 20, Miao does not specifically disclose the sidelink data transmission session is associated with a set of logical channels; and the method further comprises: determining a logical channel from the set of logical channels based on a predefined condition.
In an analogous art, Lu discloses the sidelink data transmission session is associated with a set of logical channels; and the method further comprises: determining a logical channel from the set of logical channels based on a predefined condition (Paragraph 0095-0097 discloses the fourth device being a device having at least one of a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC CE) or a logical channel with a highest priority from the plurality of second devices; or the fourth device being a device in a DRX activation state on the one or more resources for the sidelink transmission from the plurality of second devices)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lu to the system of Miao to provide a resource selection method, according to DRX configuration information of one or more second devices, one or more resources for sidelink transmission to improve the overall performance of the sidelink communication system (Abstract, Lu).
Regarding claim 21, Miao does not specifically disclose wherein the predefined condition comprises one of: the logical channel having a highest priority among all logical channels within the set of logical channels which have sidelink data available for transmission; or the logical channel having a highest priority among all logical channels within the set of logical channels which have a number of token greater than 0.
In an analogous art, Lu discloses wherein the predefined condition comprises one of: the logical channel having a highest priority among all logical channels within the set of logical channels which have sidelink data available for transmission; or the logical channel having a highest priority among all logical channels within the set of logical channels which have a number of token greater than 0 (Paragraph 0095-0097 discloses the fourth device being a device having at least one of a Medium Access Control-Control Element (MAC CE) or a logical channel with a highest priority from the plurality of second devices; or the fourth device being a device in a DRX activation state on the one or more resources for the sidelink transmission from the plurality of second devices)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lu to the system of Miao to provide a resource selection method, according to DRX configuration information of one or more second devices, one or more resources for sidelink transmission to improve the overall performance of the sidelink communication system (Abstract, Lu).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Ji et al. (US 2023/0354388 A1) discloses a resource selection apparatus, configured in a first terminal equipment, the resource selection apparatus includes a transmitter configured to transmit sidelink data to a second terminal equipment, the second terminal equipment being configured with sidelink discontinuous reception (SL DRX), and processor circuitry configured to generate a first candidate resource set and a second candidate resource set (Abstract, Ji).
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/ROMANI OHRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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