DETAILED ACTION
1. It is hereby acknowledged that 18/374806 the following papers have been received and placed of record in the file: Amendment dated 06/02/26
2. Claims 1, 11 and 25 are presented for examination. Claims 1 and 11 have been amended. Claims 6-7, 6-17 and 21-24 are being cancelled. Claim 25 is new.
Response to Argument
3. Applicant’s arguments, see remarks, filed 06/02/26 with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 11 and 25 upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made.
Claim Objection
4. Claims 1, 11, and 25 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 11, and 25 states…. preset fixed attribute ….. It is still unclear if the preset fixed attribute is referring to HARQ attribute or a different attribute and it is unclear how is it related to the rest of the claim limitation. The specification does not seem to provide further clarification.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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) A patent may not be obtained through the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
6. Claims 1, 11 and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over NPL-3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #112 electronic Online, Jan 25 — Feb 5, 2021 referred to as 3GPP in view of Park (KR20220101874A) KR 20210003898 referred to as KR in further view of 3GPP TSG RAN meeting #88e Electronic Meeting, June 29 - July 3, 2020 RP-200854 referred to as 3GPP2nd
Regarding claim 1, 3GPP teaches an information transmission method, comprising: determining, by a first communication device based on terminal implementation, whether to send a first media access control control element (MAC CE), wherein the first MAC CE is a discontinuous reception MAC CE in a sidelink (SL), wherein the first communication device is a first terminal, (see section 2.4 explains ….The SL DRX command MAC CE is useful in the TX-centric model for the Rx UE to further reduce power consumption. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE anyway needs to keep awake for each “possible” transmission from peer UE. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE can skip those possible transmission time if confirmed by its TX UE. for the scenario of sidelink relay, the relay UE can use this command to inform remote UE of no data to receive. After receiving this MAC CE, the remote UE can sleep if he has no data to transmit as we )
3GPP does not explicitly disclose the discontinuous reception MAC CE is used to instruct stopping of at least one of a DRX-onDuration Timer or a DRX-InactivityTimer;_and determining, by the first communication device, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute; wherein the determining, by the first communication device, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute comprises: fixing, by the first communication device, the HARQ attribute of the first MAC CE as disabled.
However KR page 11 paragraph [0005] explains… when the terminal receives the DRX Command MAC CE, the on-duration timer and the DRX deactivation timer are stopped, and if a short DRX cycle is set, a short DRX cycle timer is executed based on the set short DRX cycle. can drive On the other hand, if the short DRX cycle is not configured, a long DRX cycle based on the long DRX cycle timer is driven…..
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with KR. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link reliability (i.e. reducing delay) (see KR background)
3GPP2nd 2.2.1 explains if the highest priority logical channel of the destination selected in SL LCP is configured with ‘HARQ disabled’, UE selects only logical channels with “HARQ disabled” for the entire TB…..For SL mode2, UE considers mapping between LCH and HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute 10 select TX resource pool. If UE is configured with multiple TX resource pools with the same HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute, t's up to UE implementation to select one out of them.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine the modified 3GPP with 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link communication and configuration with parameters usage (see 2.2.1)
Regarding claim 11, 3GPP teaches a communication device, comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or an instruction stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the communication device is a first terminal, and the program or the instruction, when executed by the processor, causes the first terminal to perform: determining based on terminal implementation, whether to send a first media access control control element (MAC CE), wherein the first MAC CE is a discontinuous reception MAC CE in a sidelink (SL), (see 3GPP section 2.4 explains ….The SL DRX command MAC CE is useful in the TX-centric model for the Rx UE to further reduce power consumption. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE anyway needs to keep awake for each “possible” transmission from peer UE. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE can skip those possible transmission time if confirmed by its TX UE. for the scenario of sidelink relay, the relay UE can use this command to inform remote UE of no data to receive. After receiving this MAC CE, the remote UE can sleep if he has no data to transmit as we )
3GPP does not explicitly disclose wherein the discontinuous reception MAC CE is used to instruct stopping of at least one of a DRX-onDuration Timer or a DRX-InactivityTimer: and
determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute; wherein the determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute comprises: fixing the HARQ attribute of the first MAC CE as disabled.
However KR page 11 paragraph [0005] explains… when the terminal receives the DRX Command MAC CE, the on-duration timer and the DRX deactivation timer are stopped, and if a short DRX cycle is set, a short DRX cycle timer is executed based on the set short DRX cycle. can drive On the other hand, if the short DRX cycle is not configured, a long DRX cycle based on the long DRX cycle timer is driven…..
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with KR. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link reliability (i.e. reducing delay) (see KR background)
3GPP2nd 2.2.1 explains if the highest priority logical channel of the destination selected in SL LCP is configured with ‘HARQ disabled’, UE selects only logical channels with “HARQ disabled” for the entire TB…..For SL mode2, UE considers mapping between LCH and HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute 10 select TX resource pool. If UE is configured with multiple TX resource pools with the same HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute, t's up to UE implementation to select one out of them.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link communication and configuration with parameters usage (see 2.2.1)
Regarding claim 25, 3GPP teaches A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a program or an instruction is stored, wherein when the program or the instruction is executed by a processor, the following steps are implemented: determining based on terminal implementation, whether to send a first media access control control element (MAC CE), (see 3GPP section 2.4 explains ….The SL DRX command MAC CE is useful in the TX-centric model for the Rx UE to further reduce power consumption. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE anyway needs to keep awake for each “possible” transmission from peer UE. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE can skip those possible transmission time if confirmed by its TX UE. for the scenario of sidelink relay, the relay UE can use this command to inform remote UE of no data to receive. After receiving this MAC CE, the remote UE can sleep if he has no data to transmit as we ) wherein the first MAC CE is a discontinuous reception MAC CE in a sidelink (SL), (see section 2.4 explains ….The SL DRX command MAC CE is useful in the TX-centric model for the Rx UE to further reduce power consumption. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE anyway needs to keep awake for each “possible” transmission from peer UE. W/o this MAC CE, a Rx UE can skip those possible transmission time if confirmed by its TX UE. for the scenario of sidelink relay, the relay UE can use this command to inform remote UE of no data to receive. After receiving this MAC CE, the remote UE can sleep if he has no data to transmit as we ) wherein the first communication device is a first terminal, (see section 2.4 explains ….The SL DRX command MAC CE is useful in the TX-centric model for the Rx UE to further reduce power consumption.)
3GPP does not explicitly disclose wherein the discontinuous reception MAC CE is used to instruct stopping of at least one of a DRX-onDuration Timer or a DRX-InactivityTimer;
and determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute; wherein the determining a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) attribute of the first MAC CE according to preset fixed attribute comprises: fixing the HARQ attribute of the first MAC CE as disabled.
However KR page 11 paragraph [0005] explains… when the terminal receives the DRX Command MAC CE, the on-duration timer and the DRX deactivation timer are stopped, and if a short DRX cycle is set, a short DRX cycle timer is executed based on the set short DRX cycle. can drive On the other hand, if the short DRX cycle is not configured, a long DRX cycle based on the long DRX cycle timer is driven…..
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine 3GPP with KR. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link reliability (i.e. reducing delay) (see KR background)
3GPP2nd 2.2.1 explains if the highest priority logical channel of the destination selected in SL LCP is configured with ‘HARQ disabled’, UE selects only logical channels with “HARQ disabled” for the entire TB…..For SL mode2, UE considers mapping between LCH and HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute 10 select TX resource pool. If UE is configured with multiple TX resource pools with the same HARQ feedback enable/disable attribute, t's up to UE implementation to select one out of them.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to combine the modified 3GPP with 3GPP2nd. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification before the effective filling data of the claimed invention to improve side link communication and configuration with parameters usage (see 2.2.1)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Gerald Smarth whose telephone number is (571) 270-1923. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday 6am-4:30pm ET. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joseph Avellino can be reached on 571-272-7784. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/GERALD A SMARTH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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