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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-3, 5-8, 10-12 and 14-23 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claims 1-10, 14-15, 17-18 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao (US 2022/0248428) in view of Zhao (US 2023/0063901) – hereinafter referred to as Zhao ‘901.
Regarding claims 1 and 18, Zhao describes a method/UE for determining a sidelink feedback resource (title), comprising:
[a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the program or the instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the UE to perform:]
determining, by first UE, a sidelink (SL) feedback resource, wherein the SL feedback resource is used by the first UE to send feedback information (fig. 2 & para. 48-49, first terminal (UE) determines SL feedback resource for sending SL feedback information to the second terminal).
Zhao fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein determining the SL feedback resource comprise:
determining, by the first UE, an interlace index of the SL feedback resource based on a slot number.
Zhao ‘901 also describes SL feedback method comprising determination of SL transmission resource (title & para. 123), further describing:
determining, by the first UE, an interlace index of the SL feedback resource based on a slot number (para. 115, terminal determines at least one physical resource block (PRB) (resource) corresponding to the transmission resource for the first sidelink data according to a slot index (number) of the transmission resource for the first sidelink data, the PRB designated by an interlace PRB index, para. 123).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that for the SL feedback resource of Zhao to determine an interlace index based on a slot number as in Zhao ‘901.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this accurately enables how the receiver terminal should perform sidelink feedback and how the transmitter terminal should report sidelink feedback information to the central control node (Zhao ‘901, para. 4).
Regarding claim 2, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
the SL feedback resource is determined based on resource allocation or a resource structure of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) and/or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (Zhao fig. 3 & para. 60, deploying (determining) SL feedback resource per the PSCCH & PSSCH configuration as shown).
Regarding claim 3, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:wherein in a case that the SL feedback resource is a distributed resource (Zhao para. 6, sidelink resource is used/shared (distributed) between transmitting & receiving UE), the determining a sidelink SL feedback resource comprises at least one of the following:
determining a frequency domain resource spacing of the SL feedback resource (para. 60, determining sidelink feedback resource of different subband start positions).
Regarding claim 5, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the bandwidth occupied by the SL feedback resource comprises at least one of the following:
a subset of frequency domain of the PSSCH (Zhao para. 60, SL feedback resource uses certain subband (subset of frequency domain) for the PSSCH); or
a frequency domain range of one or more resource block (RB) sets (para. 60, SL feedback resource comprises resource pool of 2 subbands each having 8 PRBs (RB sets)).
Regarding claim 6, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the frequency domain resource granularity occupied by the SL feedback resource comprises at least one of the following:
one physical resource block (PRB); or M physical resource blocks PRBs, wherein M is a protocol-predefined, preconfigured, or configured parameter (Zhao para. 60, SL feedback resource comprises a fixed (preconfigured value/parameter) resource pool of 2 subbands each having 8 PRBs).
Regarding claim 7, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the frequency domain resource spacing of the SL feedback resource satisfies:
the frequency domain resource spacing is a spacing of two adjacent frequency domain resource granularities or a gap between two adjacent frequency domain resource granularities (Zhao para. 53-54, the frequency domain M*N PRBs occupy one sidelink feedback channel, where PRB corresponds to 12 consecutive carriers & has 15K carrier spacing, para. 34).
Regarding claim 8, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the at least one of the frequency domain resource position, the frequency domain resource size, the interlace index, or the interlace quantity of the SL feedback resource satisfies at least one of the following:
the at least one of the frequency domain resource position, the frequency domain resource size, the interlace index, or the interlace quantity of the SL feedback resource is a parameter randomly selected within a preconfigured range (Zhao para. 90-92, regarding the sidelink feedback resource set that is according to the information of the frequency domain size, the determination configuration comprises selection rule that randomly selects sidelink feedback resource)
Regarding claim 9, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the frequency domain resource position and/or the frequency domain resource size of the SL feedback resource satisfy/satisfies at least one of the following:
the frequency domain resource position and/or the frequency domain resource size of the SL feedback resource are/is determined based on a slot number or a slot quantity (Zhao para. 51, the time & frequency domain resource configuration indication # of slots and positions to be used per a frequency domain size occupied by each sidelink feedback resource).
Regarding claim 10, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the RBG satisfies at least one of the following:
an RBG quantity is a protocol-predefined, preconfigured, or configured parameter (Zhao para. 54, network determines the configuration of number of PRBs occupied in the PSFCH, namely M*N PRBs, where N PRB = 1 RBG and M = RBG quantity).
Regarding claim 14, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein that the SL feedback resource is determined based on resource allocation or a resource structure of a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH satisfies at least one of the following:
a resource structure of the SL feedback resource is same as the resource structure of the PSCCH and/or the PSSCH (Zhao fig. 3 & para. 60, the schematic block diagram depicts the structure for both determination of SL feedback resource in view of PSFCH and PSSCH).
Regarding claim 15, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein a sequence of the feedback information satisfies at least one of the following:
the feedback information is transmitted by using a sequence with a sequence length of N, wherein a value of N satisfies one of the following: the value is a predefined or preconfigured value (Zhao para. 51, transmitted sidelink feedback [sequence] is based off from the [pre]configured information comprising the frequency domain size (= transmitted sequence length)).
Regarding claim 17, Zhao describes a method/device for determining a sidelink feedback resource (title), comprising:
detecting or receiving, by a feedback-information receiving-side device, feedback information on a sidelink (SL) feedback resource, wherein the SL feedback resource is used by first UE to send the feedback information (fig. 2 & para. 48-49, first terminal (UE) determines from receiving SL feedback resource configuration for sending SL feedback information to the second terminal).
Zhao fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein determining the SL feedback resource comprise:
determining, by the first UE, an interlace index of the SL feedback resource based on a slot number.
Zhao ‘901 also describes SL feedback method comprising determination of SL transmission resource (title & para. 123), further describing:
determining, by the first UE, an interlace index of the SL feedback resource based on a slot number (para. 115, terminal determines at least one physical resource block (PRB) (resource) corresponding to the transmission resource for the first sidelink data according to a slot index (number) of the transmission resource for the first sidelink data, the PRB designated by an interlace PRB index, para. 123).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that for the SL feedback resource of Zhao to determine an interlace index based on a slot number as in Zhao ‘901.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this accurately enables how the receiver terminal should perform sidelink feedback and how the transmitter terminal should report sidelink feedback information to the central control node (Zhao ‘901, para. 4).
Regarding claims 21 and 22, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined describe:
wherein the frequency domain resource spacing of the SL feedback resource satisfies:
the frequency domain resource spacing is a spacing of two adjacent frequency domain resource granularities or a gap between two adjacent frequency domain resource granularities (Zhao para. 53-54, the frequency domain M*N PRBs occupy one sidelink feedback channel, where PRB corresponds to 12 consecutive carriers & has 15K carrier spacing, para. 34).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao in view of Zhao ‘901 as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Hui (US 2021/0337527).
Regarding claim 11, Zhao and Zhao ‘901 combined fail to further explicitly describe:
wherein the one or more resource elements (REs) satisfy at least one of the following:
RE density is related to a subcarrier spacing (SCS);
a spacing between REs is related to an SCS;
being used to predefine an interlace quantity in a protocol, or preconfigure an interlace quantity, or configure an interlace quantity; or
a quantity of REs in one or more resource blocks is one or more, wherein the quantity of REs in the one or more resource blocks is a protocol-predefined, or preconfigured, or configured value.
Hui also describes transmission of wireless feedback on radio resources (title), further describing:
a spacing between REs is related to an SCS (fig. 8 & para. 123, feedback resources are in RE units which are [spaced] next to each other consecutively, comprising an RB as shown in fig. 8, where RBs comprise a NR subcarrier. NR carriers are limited to 50, 100, 200 & 400 Mhz with SCS of 15, 30, 60 and 160 respectively (relationship)).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the feedback resources of Zhao and Zhao ‘901 to be in REs where spacing between REs is related to an SCS as described in Hui.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this enables a wireless architecture that is sufficiently flexible and configurable (Hui, para. 44).
Claims 16 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhao in view of Zhao ‘901 as applied to claims 8 and 18 above respectively, and further in view of Ko (US 2022/0159649).
Regarding claims 16 and 23, Zhao fails to further explicitly describe:
wherein a resource mapping of the feedback information satisfies at least one of the following: a feedback information sequence is mapped from a lowest PRB of a frequency domain resource; a feedback information sequence on each PRB is a repetition of the feedback information sequence.
Ko also describes allocation of wireless feedback resources (title), further describing:
wherein a resource mapping of the feedback information satisfies at least one of the following: a feedback information sequence is mapped from a lowest PRB of a frequency domain resource (fig. 7 & para. 95, BWP0 to BWP2 each comprising PRBs from PRB0 on (feedback information sequence) is mapped from lowest carrier/frequency upward as shown for the feedback transmission).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to specify that the feedback transmission in Zhao and Zhao ‘901 to have its feedback information sequence to be mapped from a lowest PRB of frequency domain resource as in Ko.
The motivation for combining the teachings is that this enables the base station to efficiently allocate resources for PUCCH transmission for SL HARQ feedback report to the transmitting UE (Ko, para. 15).
Claim 19 describes an apparatus (UE) comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the method for determining a sidelink feedback resource according to claim 17 are implemented. Since Zhao describes its method to be implemented in a UE comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions, it is rejected under the same rationale.
Claim 20 describes an apparatus (network node) comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the program or instructions are executed by the processor, the steps of the method for determining a sidelink feedback resource according to claim 17 are implemented. Since Zhao describes its method to be implemented in a UE (= a network node in a P2P network) comprising a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions, it is rejected under the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 12 is 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Lee (US 2022/0240227) describing determining a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resource, based on an index of a slot and an index of a subchannel related to the PSSCH (abstract), and Gulati (US 2019/0110325) describing device-to-device feedback using a resource defined by a sidelink communication structure (fig. 8).
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 mailing date of this final action.
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WARNER WONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2469
/WARNER WONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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