DETAILED ACTION
Response to Remark
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 01/21/26.
Independent claims have been amended.
Claims 22, 26, 28, 35, 37, and 39 have been canceled.
The previous 103 rejection over He in view of Yeo has been replaced with a new 103 rejection over Liu in view of Ji and further in view of Fred for the amendment.
This case has been transferred to the current Examiner.
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.
Claims 21-25, 27, 32-34, 36, 38, and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2023/0019322, “Liu”) in view of Ji et al. (US 2024/0080768, “Ji”) and further in view of Freda et al. (US 2023/0063472, “Fred”).
Regarding claim 21, Liu discloses a method comprising:
- performing, by a first device, physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) transmission (See ¶.20, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of scheduling three PSCCH/PSCCH transmission resources by one piece of SL DCI; See ¶.8, obtaining a transmission or reception configuration, where the transmission or reception configuration is used to indicate a first time domain range in which the first terminal does not monitor a target object and/or a second time domain range in which the first terminal monitors a target object);
- performing, by the first device, physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmission related to the PSCCH transmission (See Fig.2 below;
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- determining, by the first device, a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resource related to the PSSCH transmission (See ¶.38-40, as shown in FIG. 4, a PSSCH resource occupies one sub-channel in frequency domain, and 10 PSFCH RBs exist in the sub-channel. [0039] A PSFCH occasion appears once every N slots (sidelink slot), that is, a PSFCH period N=1, 2, 4. Therefore, some SL slots have a PSCCH/PSSCH and a PSFCH, and some SL slots have only a PSCCH/PSSCH without a PSFCH. In each period, N PSSCH occasions may be associated with the PSFCH occasion, and a time of a PSSCH occasion associated with the PSSCH occasion on a slot m is not earlier than m+K, where K=2, 3. [0040] It should be noted that Subcarrier Spacing (SCS) of the foregoing parameters may be the same or different. K and N are logical slots (SL slot). Therefore, an actual distance between K SL slots may be greater than duration corresponding to K physical slots, and an actual distance between N SL slots may be greater than duration corresponding to N physical slots. As shown in FIG. 5, it is assumed that physical slots 2 and 4 in five physical slots are used for SL. Therefore, logical slot numbers or SL slot numbers of the two SL slots are 1 and 2. In this case, an actual distance between logical slots 1 and 2 is 2 physical slots and is greater than duration corresponding to one slot; See Fig.4 below;
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- determining, by the first device, negative acknowledgment (NACK) for the PSSCH transmission (See ¶.140, the first terminal needs to feed back a NACK to a terminal sending a PSSCH and/or a PSCCH) based on:
- (i) that negative-only acknowledgment is enabled (See ¶.43, multicast/groupcast mechanism 1 (option 1 NACK-only feedback): If the data is received but cannot be parsed, a NACK is fed back; otherwise, no feedback is performed),
- (ii) that the first device is configured with information related to a number of times K allowed for skipping PSFCH monitoring (See ¶.115, the first terminal monitors a PSFCH corresponding to the first target transmission resource and does not monitor (skips) a PSFCH corresponding to a transmission resource other than the first target transmission resource. For example, the first terminal sends one piece of SCI indicating three transmission resources, and the first terminal does not monitor a PSFCH resource other than PSFCH resources associated with the three transmission resources; Examiner’s Note: Fred discloses the limitations “a number of times K allowed for skipping PSFCH monitoring”), and
(iii) that the first device skips PSFCH monitoring on the PSFCH resource based on the information related to the number of times, wherein K is a positive integer (See ¶.8, where the transmission or reception configuration is used to indicate a first time domain range in which the first terminal does not monitor a target object; Fig.3 shows “not monitor a PSFCH resource other than PSFCH resources associated with the three transmission resources”;
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; See ¶.274-275, M×P, where P is a reservation period, a service period, a period indicated by sidelink control information SCI, a period of a sidelink configured grant SL CG, or a period of sidelink semi-persistent scheduling, and M is a positive integer; and [0275] J slots or milliseconds, where J is greater than or equal to 32+N and is less than or equal to 32+N+K−1, or J is greater than or equal to RA_duration+N and is less than or equal to RA_duration+N+K−1, N is a period of a feedback resource, K is a minimum time interval between a transmission resource and a corresponding feedback resource, RA_duration is a time domain range or a time domain distance occupied by two transmission resources in preset transmission resources, and the preset transmission resource is a transmission resource included in SL SPS, a transmission resource included in an SL CG, a transmission resource scheduled by SL DCI, or a transmission resource indicated by SCI, where [0276] when the target parameter is the first preset timer, and the first preset timer includes a first timer and/or a second timer, the first sub-time domain range corresponds to timing duration of the first timer, and the second sub-time domain range corresponds to timing duration of the second timer; Examiner’s Note: that is, the first device skips PSFCH monitoring on the PSFCH resource based on SCI information indicating three transmission resources during P reservation period as shown in Fig.3).
Liu discloses the method of “negative-only acknowledgment being enabled, i.e. sidelink groupcast HARQ option 1 (Liu, See ¶.43)”, but does not explicitly disclose the method of “associating the HARQ option 1 (NACK-only) with the method of skipping PSFCH resource and “a number of times k allowed for skipping PSFCH monitoring.”
However, Ji discloses the method of “associating the NACK-only being enabled with the method of skipping PSFCH monitoring” (Ji, See ¶.48, In sidelink groupcast HARQ option 1, the sidelink TX UE may indicate a range parameter in its transmitted SCI and, thus, a sidelink RX UE within range of the sidelink TX UE sends a NACK feedback, if it successfully decodes the SCI but fails in decoding the data payload. This may also be referred to as a “negative-only acknowledgement”. Otherwise, the sidelink RX UE may not transmit any feedback. In this option, the sidelink RX UEs sending NACK may use a common, or shared, PSFCH resource. The common/shared PSFCH resource may be determined by sidelink RX UEs and the sidelink TX UE by considering the starting subchannel or subchannels and the slot used for the associated PSSCH transmissions, as well as the Layer-1 (L1) source identifier (ID) provided by the SCI; See ¶.116, If HARQ option 1 is used for the considered sidelink groupcast, then the PSFCH resource determined in block 602 of FIG. 6 may be a common PSFCH resource shared by all of the sidelink RX UEs in the considered groupcast. In this case, in block 605 of FIG. 6 the UE may only need to monitor the determined common PSFCH resource for detecting the HARQ feedback, such as NACK) and;
Fred discloses “a number of times K allowed for skipping monitoring” (Fred, See ¶.1311, the WTRU may stop monitoring PSFCH upon reception of a configured number of HARQ ACK received from a subset of WTRUs in the group).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to apply the method of “associating the NACK-only being enabled with the method of skipping PSFCH monitoring” as taught by Ji and “a number of times k allowed for skipping PSFCH monitoring” as taught by Fred into the system of Liu, so that it provides a way for the UE to only monitor the determined PSFCH resource for detecting HARQ-NACK (Ji, See ¶.116) and to stop monitoring PSFCH based on a number of HARQ ACK received from a subset of WTRUs in the group (Fred, See ¶.1311).
Regarding claim 23, Liu discloses “wherein, based on that the first device skips PSFCH monitoring on the PSFCH resource, PSSCH retransmission is performed by the first device (See ¶.43, NACK-only feedback; See ¶.140, the first terminal needs to feed back a NACK to a terminal sending a PSSCH and/or a PSCCH; See ¶.115, the first terminal monitors a PSFCH corresponding to the first target transmission resource and does not monitor (skips) a PSFCH corresponding to a transmission resource other than the first target transmission resource. For example, the first terminal sends one piece of SCI indicating three transmission resources, and the first terminal does not monitor a PSFCH resource other than PSFCH resources associated with the three transmission resources; Examiner’s Note: NACK is for retransmission for a PSSCH and/or a PSCCH).”
Regarding claim 24, Liu discloses “based on that the first device skips PSFCH monitoring on the PSFCH resource, PSSCH blind retransmission is performed by the first device (See ¶.43, NACK-only feedback; See ¶.140, the first terminal needs to feed back a NACK to a terminal sending a PSSCH and/or a PSCCH; Examiner’s Note: NACK-only is for blind retransmission for a PSSCH and/or a PSCCH).”
Regarding claim 25, Liu discloses “transmitting, to a base station, negative acknowledgment through a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) related to the PSFCH resource (See ¶.35, a PSFCH is used to feed back sidelink HARQ-ACK information. After determining sidelink HARQ-ACK information, the user may further send the sidelink HARQ-ACK information to a base station by using a PUCCH or a PUSCH).”
Regarding claim 27, Liu and Ji do not explicitly disclose what Fred discloses “wherein, based on that the first device is configured with the information related to the number of times K allowed for skipping PSFCH monitoring, the first device is not allowed to skip PSFCH monitoring more than K times (Fred, See ¶.1311, the WTRU may stop monitoring PSFCH upon reception of a configured number of HARQ ACK received from a subset of WTRUs in the group).” Therefore, this claim is rejected with the similar reasons and motivation set forth in the rejection of claim 21.
Regarding claim 32, Liu discloses “determining a selection window based on a packet delay budget (PDB); selecting at least one candidate slot within an active time of a second device within the selection window; and selecting at least one sidelink (SL) resource within the at least one candidate slot (See ¶.272, a packet delay budget PDB; See ¶.274-¶.275, selection of SL resource; See ¶.126 for duration of an active time; See Fig.1 for DRX cycle as selection window; See ¶.256, a resource selection control behavior in the time domain range as selection window).”
Regarding claim 33, Liu discloses “determining a selection window within an active time of a second device based on a PDB; and selecting at least one SL resource within the selection window (See ¶.268, resource selection in the second time domain range; See ¶.271, sub-time domain range is greater than or equal to at least one of the following parameters: a packet delay budget PDB; See Fig.1, DRX cycle having ‘On Duration’).”
Regarding claim 34, it is a device claim corresponding to the method claim 21, except the limitations “at least one transceiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory (Liu, See Fig.8)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 36, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 24 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 38, it is a processing device claim corresponding to the method claim 21, except the limitations “at least one transceiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory (Liu, See Fig.8)” and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Regarding claim 40, it is a claim corresponding to the claim 24 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 29-31 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed have been considered. But, in view of the applicant’s amendment to the claims, examiner has clarified and totally remapped the rejection to the argued claim limitations, using new prior art references by Liu, Ji, and Fred. The previous 103 rejection has been replaced with a new 103 rejection over Liu in view of Ji and further in view of Fred.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
Prosecution Insights