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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I of claims 1 – 12 and 30 – 41 in the reply filed on 15th October 2025 is acknowledged.
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Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 4th August 2023 and 7th January 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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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.
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 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan et al (US 2022/0330038 A1) in view of Wang et al (US 12,418,908 B2).
Claim 30 (similarly Claim 1). Ganesan shows an apparatus for wireless communications at a first user equipment (UE) (fig. 7: UE-A; fig. 8), comprising:
a processor (fig. 8: processor);
memory coupled with the processor (fig. 8: memory); and
instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor ([0145]: the processor executes instructions stored in the memory to perform the methods and routines) to cause the apparatus to:
establish a first communication link with a base station and a sidelink communication link with a second UE (fig. 7: UE-A communicates with gNB via a link and UE-B via a sidelink);
perform an interference measurement for sidelink communications transmitted on the sidelink communication link ([0075]: SL pathloss (between Tx UE and Rx UE); [0098]: the UE-B may use the transmit power for feedback message transmission based on the received measurement/pathloss from the UE-A discovery transmission; [0106]: the UE-B 303 (i.e. Rx UE) performs L1-RSRP measurement on each received panel and provide measurement report to the UE-A 301 (i.e. Tx UE) in the sidelink data or control channel or via higher layer signaling) and downlink communications received on the first communication link ([0075]: a UE may be configured to use DL pathloss (between Tx UE and gNB); [0129]: the ‘facing in the direction’ and ‘facing away from the direction’ of gNB may be a qualitatively measure of L1-RSRP based on the Synchronization Signal Block or Channel State Information Reference Signal (“CSI-RS”) transmission from the gNB), wherein the interference measurement is based at least in part on a first configuration for downlink reception on the first communication link ([0128]: the UE may be (pre)configured with a threshold for determination… the pathloss is estimated for each antenna panel, e.g. based on a suitable receive beam (e.g. maximum RSRP beam across different received pathloss RS/beams, the RS may be from the gNB or from SL UE) from the panel), and the panel-specific DL pathloss estimate is used for determining SL (e.g. open-loop) transmit power for SL transmission from that panel wherein the open-loop power control parameters (P0 and alpha values) may be separately/independently configured for each pathloss RS and a second configuration for sidelink transmission on the sidelink communication link ([0099]: the transmission configuration may include spatial relation or quasi-collocation assumption between the target transmission by UE-A and reference RS (e.g. SL-RS transmitted by the UE-A discovery transmission, SL-RS transmitted by the UE-B feedback message) and may comprise panel-ID(s) information for UE-A transmission wherein UE(s) may also include the number of supported UE antenna panels for SL transmission as part of UE capability information); and transmitting sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on the interference measurement ([0093]: the SL-RS are embedded in the data transmission to aid the receiver channel measurement can be considered and in another implementation standalone SL-RS for unicast establishment can be considered and in one method each SL-RS for a UE may be orthogonally generated (e.g. based on sequence and/or cyclic shifts and/or orthogonal cover code) by the UE-A for different antenna panels/beams; [0106]: the UE-A may periodically/a-periodically transmit SL-RS both with current activate panel/beam used for SL data transmission and also with other activate panel/beam to enable continuous radio link measurement from different panels; [0124]: the source UE-A may indicate one or more potential resource for transmission (e.g. on PSCCH or SL-RS on the potential resource) and the target UE-B may positive acknowledge the resource before the data/message transmission on the resource by the source UE-A (to the target UE-B)).
Ganesan does not very expressly describe feature of:
transmitting, to the base station, a message indicating whether the first UE is capable of concurrently receiving downlink communications on the first communication link.Wang teaches feature of transmitting, to a base station, a message indicating whether a first UE is capable of concurrently receiving downlink communications on a first communication link (col. 18 lines 35-53: the base station receiving an indication from a user equipment-coordination set, UECS, that the UECS is capable of full-duplex communication, based on the indication that the UECS is capable of full-duplex bandwidth, allocating downlink resources and uplink resources for full-duplex communication with a target user equipment, UE, in the UECS, transmitting a first resource grant to the UECS). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the message indicating whether the first UE is capable of concurrently receiving downlink communications on a first communication link as taught by Wang in the (full-duplex mode) first UE of Ganesan to facilitate canceling crosstalk of downlink signals for transmitted downlink data from received uplink signals.
Claim 31 (similarly Claim 2). Ganesan shows the apparatus of claim 30, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
determine that the first UE is capable of concurrently receiving the downlink communications on the first communication link (see claims 1 and 30) and transmitting the sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on determining that the interference measurement satisfies a threshold ([0154]: the processor excludes the at least one sidelink resource by excluding a particular resource in response to sensing more than a first threshold amount of signal strength… the processor excludes the second resource in response to sensing more than a second threshold amount of signal strength using the second beam, where the second threshold is larger than the first threshold… the processor selects a sidelink resource from the remaining candidate sidelink resources for performing sidelink communication using a beam at an antenna panel).Ganesan does not expressly describe wherein transmitting the message is based at least in part on the determination; and
receive, from the base station, a resource grant indicating a first set of resources and a second set of resources, wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are configured for concurrently receiving a downlink message from the base station on the first communication link and transmitting a sidelink message to the second UE on the sidelink communication link, the first set of resources at least partially overlapping with the second set of resources.Wang teaches features of:
transmitting a message is based at least in part on a determination (col. 18 lines 35-40: the base station receiving an indication from a user equipment-coordination set, UECS, that the UECS is capable of full-duplex communication, based on the indication that the UECS is capable of full-duplex bandwidth); and
receive, from a base station, a resource grant indicating a first set of resources and a second set of resources (col. 18 lines 40-47 and 55-65: allocating downlink resources and uplink resources for full-duplex communication with a target user equipment, UE, in the UECS, transmitting a first resource grant to the UECS, the first resource grant including an indication of the downlink resources and the uplink resources, receiving uplink signals for uplink data from the UECS using the uplink resources… the base station receiving an indication of an updated full-duplex bandwidth for the full-duplex communication, based on the indication of the updated full-duplex bandwidth, modifying the allocation of the downlink resources and the uplink resources for the full-duplex communication; and transmitting a second resource grant to the UECS, the second resource grant including an indication of the modified allocation of the downlink resources and the uplink resources), wherein the first set of resources and the second set of resources are configured for concurrently receiving a downlink message from the base station on the first communication link and transmitting a sidelink message to the second UE on the sidelink communication link (col. 18 lines 48-53: using downlink data that is concurrently transmitted to the UECS with the received uplink signals, processing the received uplink signals to provide decoded data using the downlink data to cancel crosstalk of downlink signals for the transmitted downlink data from received uplink signals), the first set of resources at least partially overlapping with the second set of resources (col. 19 lines 3-11: based on the received indication, modifying the allocation of the downlink resources and the uplink resources for the full-duplex communication such that a portion of the downlink resources and the uplink resources overlap; and transmitting a second resource grant to the UECS, the second resource grant including an indication of the modified allocation of the downlink resources and the uplink resources).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Wang in the apparatus of Ganesan to facilitate canceling crosstalk of downlink signals for transmitted downlink data from received uplink signals.
Claim 34 (similarly Claim 5). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 30, wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
transmit, to the second UE, an interference measurement configuration for the second UE to perform one or more interference measurements between downlink communications from the base station to the first UE and sidelink communications from the first UE to the second UE ([0126] – [0127]: the other antenna panels/beam that is facing away from the direction of the gNB need not use the DL pathloss measurement 703 and may use another SL open loop power control (e.g. SL pathloss 705 between Tx UE and Rx UE, different open-loop power control parameters) transmit power for SL transmission); and
receive, from the second UE, an interference measurement report comprising a result of the one or more interference measurements ([0131] – [0132]: link adaptation for groupcast transmission, e.g. CSI/CQI reporting based on minimum communication range (MCR)… for Groupcast, the MCR may be used to enable CSI/CQI feedback reporting only for those Rx UE(s) that are inside the MCR range wherein the benefit is less CSI/CQI reporting from Rx UE(s)).
Claim 35 (similarly Claim 6). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 34, wherein the interference measurement configuration comprises one or more downlink beam directions associated with the downlink communications on the first communication link ([0110]: if the directionality information is not provided, then the AS layer may choose to transmit the message in all direction or a subset of the direction with e.g. no constraints on the beam width or number of beams or spatial domain transmission filters or order or priority of beam transmission with respect to directionality – DL and UL directional beams), one or more beam indices associated with one or more reference signals that are quasi co-located with the one or more downlink beam directions ([0112]: the UE may determine a reference RS or SL-TCI (Sidelink Transmission Configuration Indicator) state configuration for spatial relation or quasi-collocation assumption between the target transmission and reference RS and the SL-TCI-State may associate one or more reference RS with a corresponding quasi-colocation (“QCL”) type which is quasi-collocated with the target transmission), one or more downlink transmission configuration indicator states indicating the one or more downlink beam directions ([0112]: the UE may determine a reference RS or SL-TCI (Sidelink Transmission Configuration Indicator) state configuration for spatial relation or quasi-collocation assumption between the target transmission and reference RS), or any combination thereof (see above).
Claim 36 (similarly Claim 7). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 34, wherein to receive the interference measurement report comprising the result of the one or more interference measurements (see claim 34), the instructions cause the apparatus to:
receive an indication that the second UE is capable of concurrently receiving sidelink communications from the first UE while the first UE receives downlink communications from the base station based at least in part on the result of the one or more interference measurements ([0129]: a first antenna panel facing in the direction of the gNB (e.g. antenna panel 1 of UE-B) may be used for communication/measurement with the gNB using Uu interface and simultaneously used for Sidelink communication with neighboring UEs, a second antenna panel may be considered facing in the direction of the gNB if it is near to the first panel within a certain boresight angle used for communication/measurement with the gNB using Uu the interface and simultaneously used for sidelink communication).
Claim 37 (similarly Claim 8). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 34, the instructions further direction the apparatus to:
determine a transmission power for transmitting the sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on the result of the one or more interference measurements from the second UE ([0128]: the pathloss is estimated for each antenna panel (e.g. based on a suitable receive beam (e.g. maximum RSRP beam across different received pathloss RS/beams, the RS may be from the gNB or from SL UE) from the panel)); and
transmit sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on the transmission power ([0128]: the panel-specific DL pathloss estimate is used for determining SL (e.g. open-loop) transmit power for SL transmission from that panel).
Claim 38 (similarly Claim 9). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 37, the instructions further direction the apparatus to:
receive, from the base station, an indication of a first transmission power for the sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link, wherein the transmission power is based at least in part on an adjustment of the first transmission power and the result of the one or more interference measurements ([0157]: where an open loop power control for the at least one antenna panel facing the base unit is based on the downlink pathloss and where an open loop power control for the remaining antenna panels is based on a sidelink pathloss… open-loop power control parameters of P0 and alpha (‘α’) are separately configured for each of the plurality of antenna panels based on the configuration of downlink pathloss and/or sidelink pathloss).
Claim 39 (similarly Claim 10). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 30, wherein the message further comprises an indication of one or more of a destination identification associated with the second UE ([0077]: the UE(s) determine the destination Layer-2 ID for signaling reception for PC5 unicast link establishment), one or more sidelink beam directions associated with the sidelink communications ([0099]: the best sidelink panel ID/beam ID/SL-RS ID or SL transmission configuration index for unicast transmission with a particular UE-B may also be informed to the gNB in the uplink signaling for scheduling assistance purpose), or one or more beam directions the first UE is capable of using for concurrently receiving the downlink communications and transmitting the sidelink communications ([0129]: a first antenna panel facing in the direction of the gNB (e.g. antenna panel 1 of UE-B) may be used for communication/measurement with the gNB using Uu interface and simultaneously used for Sidelink communication with neighboring UEs, a second antenna panel may be considered facing in the direction of the gNB if it is near to the first panel within a certain boresight angle used for communication/measurement with the gNB using Uu the interface and simultaneously used for sidelink communication).
Claim 41 (similarly Claim 12). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 30, wherein the first communication link is associated with a first transmission reception point of a set of transmission reception points at the first UE (fig. 7: panel 1 among the 4 panels in UE-A) and the sidelink communication link is associated with a second transmission reception point of the set of transmission reception points at the first UE (fig. 7: for example, panel 2 among the 4 panels in UE-A).
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Claims 4 and 33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan et al in view of Wang et al, applied to claims 1 and 30, and in further view of Chae et al (US 2022/0225468 A1).
Claim 33 (similarly Claim 4). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 30; Ganesan, modified by Wang, does not expressly describe wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
determine that the first UE is incapable of concurrently receiving downlink communications on the first communication link and transmitting sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on determining that the interference measurement fails to satisfy a threshold, wherein transmitting the message is based at least in part on the determination.Chae teaches features of: determining that a first UE is incapable of concurrently receiving downlink communications on a first communication link and transmitting sidelink communications on a sidelink communication link based at least in part on determining that an interference measurement fails to satisfy a threshold ([0251]: a base station, one or more first messages indicating cellular discontinuous reception (DRX) parameters… the first wireless device may determine a sidelink DRX on-duration start offset based on the DRX on-duration start offset and a SL DRX on-duration timer when the tdd-uplink-downlink configuration indicates FDD and the first wireless device is not capable of simultaneous reception of sidelink and downlink), wherein transmitting a message is based at least in part on the determination ([0251]: the first wireless device may transmit, to a second wireless device, one or more second messages indicating sidelink DRX parameters).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Chae in the apparatus of Ganesan, modified by Wang, to minimize collision or overlap of resources.
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Claims 11 and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganesan et al in view of Wang et al, applied to claims 1 and 30, and in further view ofOsawa et al (US 2021/0258887 A1).
Claim 40 (similarly Claim 11). Ganesan, modified by Wang, shows the apparatus of claim 30; Ganesan, modified by Wang, does not expressly describe wherein the instructions further cause the apparatus to:
receive, from the base station, one or more transmission power control commands associated with a transmission power the first UE is to use to transmit sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link; and
transmit sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on receiving the one or more transmission power control commands.Osawa teaches features of:
receiving, from a base station, one or more transmission power control commands associated with a transmission power a first UE is to use to transmit sidelink communications on a sidelink communication link ([0036]: the information indicating the reference signal to be referred to (for example, information indicating a resource of the reference signal and/or the user equipment 20), may be reported or instructed by the base station apparatus 10… the path loss value used for SL transmission power control may be the maximum value or the minimum value of the path loss values of the plurality of user equipments 20 wherein the path loss value may be calculated upon adding the base station apparatus 10 to the plurality of user equipments 20; [0041]: see below); and
transmit sidelink communications on the sidelink communication link based at least in part on receiving the one or more transmission power control commands ([0041]: for SL transmission power control, closed loop control by a TPC (Transmit power control) command may be applied wherein the closed loop may be associated with the reference signal, similar to the case of UL of NR).It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to implement the features as taught by Osawa in the apparatus of Ganesan, modified by Wang, to facilitate performing appropriate transmission power control in inter-terminal direct communication.
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 32 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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Conclusion
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
Lee et al, US 2022/0394699 A1: a method for performing sidelink communication by a first device that comprises steps of transmitting a PSCCH to a second device on the basis of one sub-channel among M sub-channels associated with a sidelink slot; and transmitting a PSSCH associated with the PSCCH to the second device on the basis of N sub-channels among the M sub-channels.
Horn et al, US 2022/0231890 A1: a method for wireless communications at a first device, comprising steps of determining, by the first device, a condition of a channel between the first device and a second device, wherein the first device is scheduled to transmit a signal to the second device over the channel; applying, by the first device, pre-equalization to the signal based at least in part on one or more pre-equalization parameters, the one or more pre-equalization parameters being based at least in part on the condition of the channel and a power delay profile for signals communicated over the channel, transmitting, to a third device, a report indicating the one or more pre-equalization parameters associated with the pre-equalized signal, wherein at least one of the one or more pre-equalization parameters indicates a time-domain location of at least one tap of the power delay profile, the third device being different from the second device; and transmitting, to the second device, the pre-equalized signal over the channel.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Xavier Szewai Wong whose telephone number is 571.270.1780. The examiner can normally be reached on 11:30 am - 8:30 pm Mon to Fri.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski can be reached on 571.270.1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/XAVIER S WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415 9th December 2025