DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 07/20/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Amendments filed on 07/20/2026 are entered. The amendments change the scopes of the previously presented claims. New grounds of rejections are applied to the currently amended claims as shown below.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 12-14 and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han (US 2022/0117032) in view of Xing (US 2020/0344721) and Cheng (US 2020/0351707) .
Han discloses the following features.
Regarding claim 1, a sidelink transmission processing method, performed by a terminal (see UE1 in sidelink communication with UE2 in Fig. 3), the method comprising:
in a case that a sidelink is transmitted based on N carriers (see carriers C1-C5 in Fig. 3), determining, according to first entities associated with some or all of the N carriers, whether the sidelink satisfies a carrier failure condition (see “the RLF of the sidelink communication is determined by the receiver UE upon one of the multiple carriers, which has a sidelink connection ID for the sidelink communication, fails” recited in paragraph [0048]), or determining, according to a first entity associated with each of the N carriers, whether the corresponding carrier satisfies a carrier reselection condition;
wherein N is an integer greater than 1 (see C1-C5 in Fig. 3, wherein N=5 in the example shown in Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 2, in a case that a sidelink is transmitted based on N carriers (see carriers C1-C5 in Fig. 3), determining, according to first entities associated with some or all of the N carriers, whether the sidelink satisfies a carrier failure condition (see “the RLF of the sidelink communication is determined by the receiver UE upon one of the multiple carriers, which has a sidelink connection ID for the sidelink communication, fails” recited in paragraph [0048]),
wherein the sidelink satisfying a carrier failure condition further comprises at least one of the following:
a number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of a HARQ entity associated with a first carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX
a cumulative number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of HARQ entities associated with all carriers of a first carrier set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX, or a number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of a HARQ entity associated with each carrier in the first carrier set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX;
a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with a first logical channel reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission (see “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails” recited in paragraph [0042]); and
a cumulative number of times of retransmission of RLC entities associated with all logical channels of a first logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission, or a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with each logical channel in the first logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission;
wherein the first carrier is one of the N carriers (see carriers in Fig. 3 of Han, or see “sidelink communication may contain multiple radio links” in paragraph [0031] of Cheng), the first carrier set comprises at least two of the N carriers, the first logical channel is one of logical channels associated with the N carriers, and the first logical channel set comprises at least two of the logical channels associated with the N carriers (see “the report of RLF may include a sidelink connection identifier (ID) of a sidelink communication… The report may include a carrier index, for example, a carrier index of each of carriers C1, C2, C3, C4 or C5 as shown in FIG. 3” as recited in paragraph [0043]).
Regarding claim 3, wherein the first carrier is one of the following: any one of the N carriers (see “the report of RLF may include a sidelink connection identifier (ID) of a sidelink communication… The report may include a carrier index, for example, a carrier index of each of carriers C1, C2, C3, C4 or C5 as shown in FIG. 3” as recited in paragraph [0043]); one of the N carriers where a PC5 RRC connection is located; and a designated one of the N carriers.
Regarding claim 5, wherein the maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX is configured by a network device, or pre-configured by the terminal, or specified by a protocol; and/or the maximum number of times of RLC retransmission is configured by a network device, or pre-configured by the terminal, or specified by a protocol (see “the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold)” recited in paragraph [0042], wherein the predetermined value may be considered to be a value specified by the protocol applied in the teaching of paragraph [0042] or pre-configured by the UE, as the UE itself compares the number of retransmissions to a “predetermined value” that is already configured).
Regarding claim 6, wherein, in a case that it is determine that the sidelink satisfies the carrier failure condition, the method further comprises at least one of the following: determining that a RLF occurs on the sidelink (see “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails” recited in paragraph [0042]); releasing a PC5 RRC connection corresponding to the sidelink; and stopping data transmission on the sidelink.
Regarding claim 7, wherein, in a case that it is determined that the sidelink satisfies the carrier failure condition, the method further comprises at least one of the following: maintaining a PC5 RRC connection of the sidelink; stopping sidelink transmission on a failed carrier (see step 703 in Fig. 7, wherein the sidelink radio resource configuration is released after reporting the RLF); and initiating a carrier reselection process for the failed carrier or sending first report information to a network device, wherein the first report information is used for indicating at least one of the failed carrier and a destination address of a sidelink corresponding to the failed carrier.
Regarding claim 12, a terminal (see UE1 in sidelink communication with UE2 in Fig. 3), comprising a memory, a processor, and a program or instruction stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor (see processor 104 and computer-readable medium 101 in Fig. 10), wherein the program or instruction is executed by a processor to perform
in a case that a sidelink is transmitted based on N carriers (see carriers C1-C5 in Fig. 3), determining, according to first entities associated with some or all of the N carriers, whether the sidelink satisfies a carrier failure condition (see “the RLF of the sidelink communication is determined by the receiver UE upon one of the multiple carriers, which has a sidelink connection ID for the sidelink communication, fails” recited in paragraph [0048]), or determining, according to a first entity associated with each of the N carriers, whether the corresponding carrier satisfies a carrier reselection condition;
wherein N is an integer greater than 1 (see C1-C5 in Fig. 3, wherein N=5 in the example shown in Fig. 3).
Regarding claim 13, in a case that a sidelink is transmitted based on N carriers (see carriers C1-C5 in Fig. 3), determining, according to first entities associated with some or all of the N carriers, whether the sidelink satisfies a carrier failure condition (see “the RLF of the sidelink communication is determined by the receiver UE upon one of the multiple carriers, which has a sidelink connection ID for the sidelink communication, fails” recited in paragraph [0048]),
wherein the sidelink satisfying a carrier failure condition further comprises at least one of the following:
a number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of a HARQ entity associated with a first carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX
a cumulative number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of HARQ entities associated with all carriers of a first carrier set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX, or a number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX of a HARQ entity associated with each carrier in the first carrier set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX;
a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with a first logical channel reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission (see “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails” recited in paragraph [0042]); and
a cumulative number of times of retransmission of RLC entities associated with all logical channels of a first logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission, or a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with each logical channel in the first logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission;
wherein the first carrier is one of the N carriers (see carriers in Fig. 3 of Han, or see “sidelink communication may contain multiple radio links” in paragraph [0031] of Cheng), the first carrier set comprises at least two of the N carriers, the first logical channel is one of logical channels associated with the N carriers, and the first logical channel set comprises at least two of the logical channels associated with the N carriers (see “the report of RLF may include a sidelink connection identifier (ID) of a sidelink communication… The report may include a carrier index, for example, a carrier index of each of carriers C1, C2, C3, C4 or C5 as shown in FIG. 3” as recited in paragraph [0043]).
Regarding claim 14, wherein the first carrier is one of the following: any one of the N carriers (see “the report of RLF may include a sidelink connection identifier (ID) of a sidelink communication… The report may include a carrier index, for example, a carrier index of each of carriers C1, C2, C3, C4 or C5 as shown in FIG. 3” as recited in paragraph [0043]); one of the N carriers where a PC5 RRC connection is located; and a designated one of the N carriers.
Regarding claim 16, wherein, in a case that it is determine that the sidelink satisfies the carrier failure condition, the program or instruction is executed by the processor to perform at least one of the following: determining that a RLF occurs on the sidelink (see “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails” recited in paragraph [0042]); releasing a PC5 RRC connection corresponding to the sidelink; and stopping data transmission on the sidelink.
Regarding claim 17, wherein, in a case that it is determined that the sidelink satisfies the carrier failure condition, the program or instruction is executed by the processor to perform at least one of the following: maintaining a PC5 RRC connection of the sidelink; stopping sidelink transmission on a failed carrier (see step 703 in Fig. 7, wherein the sidelink radio resource configuration is released after reporting the RLF); and initiating a carrier reselection process for the failed carrier or sending first report information to a network device, wherein the first report information is used for indicating at least one of the failed carrier and a destination address of a sidelink corresponding to the failed carrier.
Han does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 1 and 12, determining, according to a first entity associated with each of the N carriers, whether the corresponding carrier satisfies a carrier reselection condition; the first entity comprises a HARQ entity, wherein the corresponding carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition comprises a second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition, and the second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition comprises: a number of times of consecutive HARQ discontinuous transmission DTX of a HARQ entity associated with the second carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX, wherein the second carrier is any one of the N carriers; regarding claims 2 and 13, wherein the sidelink satisfying the carrier failure condition comprises: a number of times of consecutive HARQ discontinuous transmission DTX of a HARQ entity associated with a first carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX.
Xing discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, in a case that a sidelink is transmitted based on N carriers, determining, according to a first entity (see “UE” recited in paragraph [0096]) associated with each of the N carriers, whether the corresponding carrier satisfies a carrier reselection condition (see paragraphs [0097]-[0101], wherein different trigger conditions for carrier reselection for sidelink processes are disclosed); wherein N is an integer greater than 1 (see “carriers” recited in paragraph [0098]-[0099], also see carriers “CC#1, CC#2, CC#3 and CC#4” recited in paragraph [0098]).
Cheng discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 1 and 12, the first entity comprises a HARQ entity (see “HARQ entity at the MAC layer” recited in paragraph [0025]), wherein the sidelink satisfying the carrier failure condition (see “declaring a radio link failure (RLF) for the radio link” recited in paragraph [0005]) comprises:
a number of times of consecutive HARQ discontinuous transmission DTX of a HARQ entity associated with a first carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX (see “when the count of the number of consecutive HARQ failure indications (e.g., HARQ DTX) reaches a threshold (e.g., indicated by a parameter denoted by maxNumConsecutiveDTX)” recited in paragraph [0005]),
wherein the first carrier is one of the N carriers (see carriers in Fig. 3 of Han, or see “sidelink communication may contain multiple radio links” in paragraph [0031]),
wherein the corresponding carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition comprises a second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition, and the second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition comprises: a number of times of consecutive HARQ discontinuous transmission DTX of a HARQ entity associated with the second carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX, wherein the second carrier is any one of the N carriers (claim requires the RLF condition or the carrier reselection condition, the carrier reselection condition is therefore considered an optional condition, it would also have been obvious to perform carrier reselection after determining RLF, and consider the RLF condition, as shown in paragraph [0005] of Cheng, as a carrier reselection condition).
Regarding claims 2 and 13, wherein the sidelink satisfying the carrier failure condition comprises a number of times of consecutive HARQ discontinuous transmission DTX of a HARQ entity associated with a first carrier reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of consecutive HARQ DTX (see “when the count of the number of consecutive HARQ failure indications (e.g., HARQ DTX) reaches a threshold (e.g., indicated by a parameter denoted by maxNumConsecutiveDTX)” recited in paragraph [0005]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Han using features, as taught by Xing and Cheng, in order to improve the rate or reliability of sidelink communication (see paragraph [0004] of Xing) and in order to provide radio link monitoring for sidelink communications (see paragraph [0005] of Cheng).
Claim(s) 4, 8-11, 15 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han, Xing and Cheng as applied to claims 1-2 and 12 above, and further in view of Kang (US 2023/0128455).
Han, Xing and Cheng disclose the features as shown above.
Han does not disclose the following features: regarding claims 4 and 15, wherein the first logical channel is one of the following: any one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers; one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers where a PC5 RRC connection is located; and a designated one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers; regarding claims 8 and 18, wherein a second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition comprises at least one of the following: a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with a second logical channel reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission; and a cumulative number of times of retransmission of RLC entities associated with all logical channels of a second logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission, or a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with each logical channel in the second logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission; wherein the second carrier is any one of the N carriers, the second logical channel is one of logical channels associated with the second carrier, and the second logical channel set comprises at least two of the logical channels associated with the second carrier; regarding claim 9, wherein the second logical channel is one of the following: any one of the logical channels associated with the second carrier; and a designated one of the logical channels associated with the second carrier; regarding claims 10 and 19, wherein, in a case that it is determined that a third carrier satisfies the carrier reselection condition, the method further comprises at least one of the following: determining that a radio link failure (RLF) occurs on the sidelink; releasing a PC5 RRC connection corresponding to the sidelink; and stopping data transmission on the sidelink; wherein the third carrier is any one of the N carriers; regarding claims 11 and 20, wherein, in a case that it is determined that a fourth carrier satisfies the carrier reselection condition, the method further comprises at least one of the following: maintaining a PC5 RRC connection of the sidelink; stopping sidelink transmission on the fourth carrier; and initiating a carrier reselection process for the fourth carrier or sending second report information to a network device, wherein the second report information is used for indicating at least one of a carrier that triggers carrier reselection and a destination address of a sidelink corresponding to the carrier that triggers carrier reselection; wherein the fourth carrier is any one of the N carriers.
Kang discloses the following features.
Regarding claims 4 and 15, wherein the first logical channel is one of the following: any one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers (see “wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier, radio bearer information regarding the first sidelink carrier, logical channel information regarding the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], wherein the RLF message in Han includes the carrier index that indicates one of the N carriers while Kang discloses to also include the logical channel information associated with the carrier); one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers where a PC5 RRC connection is located; and a designated one of the logical channels associated with the N carriers.
Regarding claims 8 and 18, wherein a second carrier satisfying the carrier reselection condition (see “perform a carrier selection or reselection procedure, wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], which shows that carrier reselection being performed in response to a carrier failure report) comprises at least one of the following:
a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with a second logical channel reaching a corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission (see Han as shown above in paragraph [0042], reciting “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails”, wherein the RLF is determined based on the condition of exceeding the retransmission threshold; and Kang discloses the carrier reselection in response to the RLF in paragraph [0035] as shown above); and
a cumulative number of times of retransmission of RLC entities associated with all logical channels of a second logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission, or a number of times of retransmission of an RLC entity associated with each logical channel in the second logical channel set reaching the corresponding maximum number of times of RLC retransmission;
wherein the second carrier is any one of the N carriers, the second logical channel is one of logical channels associated with the second carrier, and the second logical channel set comprises at least two of the logical channels associated with the second carrier.
Regarding claim 9, wherein the second logical channel is one of the following: any one of the logical channels associated with the second carrier (see “wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier, radio bearer information regarding the first sidelink carrier, logical channel information regarding the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], wherein the RLF message in Han includes the carrier index that indicates one of the N carriers while Kang discloses to also include the logical channel information associated with the carrier); and a designated one of the logical channels associated with the second carrier.
Regarding claims 10 and 19, wherein, in a case that it is determined that a third carrier satisfies the carrier reselection condition (see “perform a carrier selection or reselection procedure, wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], which shows that carrier reselection being performed in response to a carrier failure report), the method further comprises at least one of the following: determining that a radio link failure (RLF) occurs on the sidelink (see “perform a carrier selection or reselection procedure, wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], which shows that carrier reselection being performed in response to a carrier failure report); releasing a PC5 RRC connection corresponding to the sidelink; and stopping data transmission on the sidelink; wherein the third carrier is any one of the N carriers.
Regarding claims 11 and 20, wherein, in a case that it is determined that a fourth carrier satisfies the carrier reselection condition (see “perform a carrier selection or reselection procedure, wherein the first failure report message may include at least one of an identifier of the first sidelink carrier” recited in paragraph [0035], which shows that carrier reselection being performed in response to a carrier failure report), the method further comprises at least one of the following:
maintaining a PC5 RRC connection of the sidelink;
stopping sidelink transmission on the fourth carrier (see Han as shown above in paragraph [0042], reciting “The RLF may be determined, declared or detected by UE 1 based on an amount of retransmissions of a carrier of sidelink connection between UE 1 and UE 2. For example, if the amount of retransmissions of the sidelink carrier reaches or exceeds a predetermined value (or a threshold), the sidelink carrier is determined, declared or detected fails”, wherein the RLF is determined based on the condition of exceeding the retransmission threshold; and Kang discloses the carrier reselection in response to the RLF in paragraph [0035] as shown above; and Han further shows that after the RLF report, the sidelink radio resource configuration is released in step 703 of Fig. 7, thereby stopping the sidelink transmission); and
initiating a carrier reselection process for the fourth carrier or sending second report information to a network device, wherein the second report information is used for indicating at least one of a carrier that triggers carrier reselection and a destination address of a sidelink corresponding to the carrier that triggers carrier reselection (see “perform a carrier selection or reselection procedure” recited in paragraph [0035]);
wherein the fourth carrier is any one of the N carriers (Han discloses the sidelink carriers being carriers C1-C5 in Fig. 3 as shown above).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the current application to modify the system of Han, XIng and Cheng using features, as taught by Han, in order to report carrier failure identifying the affected logical channel (see paragraph [0035] or Kang).
Conclusion
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/JUTAI KAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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