DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Response to Argument
Applicant's arguments, filed 04/27/26, with respect to claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Claims 6 and 18 have been canceled.
Claims 1-5, 7-17 and 19-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 07/10/26 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B).
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 1 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosseini et al. (U.S. 20220110058) in view of Cheng et al. (U.S. 20230156854).
For claim 1, Hosseini et al. disclose a unicast sidelink communication method, comprising:
establishing, by a receive end configured with a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode, a unicast sidelink with a transmit end within unicast establishment active time (at least [0033] and [0076]-[0078]. Operations 900 begin, at 902, by a first UE receiving signaling configuring the first UE with a DRX mode having one or more DRX ON durations for sidelink communications with at least a second UE; and deciding to extend a DRX ON duration of the one or more DRX ON durations configured for the first UE when the first UE is in the DRX On duration); and
the unicast establishment active time comprises an on-duration corresponding to the first DRX and extension time after the on-duration corresponding to the first DRX (at least [0033] and [0076]-[0078]. Operations 900 begin, at 902, by a first UE receiving signaling configuring the first UE with a DRX mode having one or more DRX ON durations for sidelink communications with at least a second UE; and deciding to extend a DRX ON duration of the one or more DRX ON durations configured for the first UE when the first UE is in the DRX On duration). However, Hosseini et al. do not disclose after the unicast sidelink establishment is completed, receiving, by the receive end, a unicast service data packet by using target configuration information, wherein the target configuration information comprises parameter configuration information of second DRX, and the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by a quality of service (QoS) configuration of a unicast service
In the same field of endeavor, Cheng et al. disclose after the unicast sidelink establishment is completed, receiving, by the receive end, a unicast service data packet by using target configuration information (at least Fig. 5, [0100]- [0105]. The relay UE may decide to switch the remote UE to a different SL DRX pattern. As illustrated, the relay UE may decide based on Remote UE reported SL measurements. The relay UE may instruct the remote UE to switch to a different SL DRX pattern via an RRC reconfiguration message. Once the remote UE is connected to a relay UE, the remote UE can request (negotiate) a dedicated SL DRX. In the illustrated example, the remote UE connects to Relay-1, which sends the remote UE a dedicated SL DRX via PC5 RRC. The remote UE may be configured to use a first SL DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 1) for use when the remote UE is experiencing good relay link quality (e.g., SL-RSRP is above certain threshold). When the relay link quality is below a certain threshold, however, the remote UE can switch (or be switched) to a second DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 2). As illustrated, DRX pattern 2 has a much larger DRX on duration, allowing the UE to monitor for more relay discovery signals thank DRX pattern 1 (e.g., DRX pattern 2 cover discovery signals from relay 2, while DRX pattern 1 does not).), wherein
the target configuration information comprises parameter configuration information of second DRX, and the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by a quality of service (QoS) configuration of a unicast service (at least Fig. 5, [0100]- [0105]. The relay UE may decide to switch the remote UE to a different SL DRX pattern. As illustrated, the relay UE may decide based on Remote UE reported SL measurements. The relay UE may instruct the remote UE to switch to a different SL DRX pattern via an RRC reconfiguration message. Once the remote UE is connected to a relay UE, the remote UE can request (negotiate) a dedicated SL DRX. In the illustrated example, the remote UE connects to Relay-1, which sends the remote UE a dedicated SL DRX via PC5 RRC. The remote UE may be configured to use a first SL DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 1) for use when the remote UE is experiencing good relay link quality (e.g., SL-RSRP is above certain threshold). When the relay link quality is below a certain threshold, however, the remote UE can switch (or be switched) to a second DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 2). As illustrated, DRX pattern 2 has a much larger DRX on duration, allowing the UE to monitor for more relay discovery signals thank DRX pattern 1 (e.g., DRX pattern 2 cover discovery signals from relay 2, while DRX pattern 1 does not).)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hosseini et al. as taught by Cheng et al. for purpose of allowing the remote UE to save power.
For claim 11, the claim has features similar to claim 1. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 1.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosseini et al. (U.S. 20220110058) in view of Cheng et al. (U.S. 20230156854) and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. 20230115633).
For claim 7, the combination of Hosseini et al. and Cheng et al. disclose the method according to claim 1. Cheng et al. disclose wherein after the receiving, by the receive end, a unicast service data packet by using target configuration information after the unicast sidelink establishment is completed, the method further comprises: in a case that a second condition is satisfied, stopping receiving unicast service data packets, wherein the second condition comprises at least one of the following: the receive end receives first indication information sent by the transmit end, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate the receive end to stop using the second DRX ([0074] and [0103]-[0105]. The relay UE may instruct the remote UE to switch to a different SL DRX pattern via an RRC reconfiguration message. This option generally may apply only to the L3 relay scenario. The remote UE may be configured to use a first SL DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 1) for use when the remote UE is experiencing good relay link quality (e.g., SL-RSRP is above certain threshold). When the relay link quality is below a certain threshold, however, the remote UE can switch (or be switched) to a second DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 2).) However, Chang et al. do not disclose a first timer expires.
In the same field of endeavor, Park et al. disclose a first timer expires (at least [0183]. The inactivity timer may be started and then expired/terminated, and after that, the HARQ RTT/retransmission timer may be started and then expired/terminated.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hosseini et al. as taught by Park et al. for purpose of saving power for sidelink communication.
Claims 8-9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosseini et al. (U.S. 20220110058) in view of Cheng et al. (U.S. 20230156854) and further in view of Park et al. (U.S. 20230115633) and further in view of Paladugu et al. (U.S. 20250184879).
For claim 8, the combination of Hosseini et al., Cheng et al. and Park et al. disclose the method according to claim 7. Cheng et al. disclose that the receive end receives first indication information sent by the transmit end comprises one of the following: the receive end receives the first indication information sent by the transmit end by using higher layer signaling ([0074] and [0103]-[0105]. The relay UE may instruct the remote UE to switch to a different SL DRX pattern via an RRC reconfiguration message. This option generally may apply only to the L3 relay scenario. The remote UE may be configured to use a first SL DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 1) for use when the remote UE is experiencing good relay link quality (e.g., SL-RSRP is above certain threshold). When the relay link quality is below a certain threshold, however, the remote UE can switch (or be switched) to a second DRX configuration (labeled DRX pattern 2).) However, the combination of Hosseini et al., Cheng et al. and Park et al. do not disclose the receive end receives the first indication information sent by the transmit end by using media access control control element (MAC-CE) signaling.
In the same field of endeavor, Paladugu et al. disclose the receive end receives the first indication information sent by the transmit end by using media access control control element (MAC-CE) signaling (at least [0048]. A medium access control (MAC)-control element (MAC-CE) is a MAC layer communication structure that may be used for control command exchange between wireless nodes. For example, the BS 110a may transmit a MAC-CE to a UE 120a to put the UE 120a into a discontinuous reception (DRX) mode to reduce the UE's power consumption.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hosseini et al. as taught by Paladugu et al. for purpose of using for control command exchange between wireless nodes.
For claim 9, the combination of Hosseini et al., Chang et al., Park et al. and Paladugu et al. disclose the method according to claim 8. Park et al. disclose wherein in a case that the receive end receives a new data packet, the first timer is started or restarted (at least [0183]. The inactivity timer is a common DRX timer, and upon receiving a new TB from the TX UE, the RX UE may start the inactivity timer and monitor whether there is additional SL data transmitted by the TX UE.)
For claim 19, the claim has features similar to claim 7-8. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claims 7-8.
Claims 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Hosseini et al. (U.S. 20220110058) in view of Cheng et al. (U.S. 20230156854) and further in view of Sun et al. (U.S. 20230217536).
For claim 10, the combination of Hosseini et al. and Cheng et al. do not disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein in a case that the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by one QoS configuration, the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is determined by a packet delay budget (PDB); or in a case that the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by at least two QoS configurations, the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is determined by a preset PDB in the at least two QoS configurations; wherein the preset PDB is a smallest PDB in the at least two QoS configurations.
In the same field of endeavor, Sun et al. disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein in a case that the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by one QoS configuration, the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is determined by a packet delay budget (PDB); or in a case that the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is indicated by at least two QoS configurations, the parameter configuration information of the second DRX is determined by a preset PDB in the at least two QoS configurations; wherein the preset PDB is a smallest PDB in the at least two QoS configurations (at least [0043]. The UE 204 can have multiple different configurations, which can be provided from the base station 201 by RRC signaling. If multiple DRX cycles are permitted and configured for the UE 204, the UE 204 can choose which DRX cycle to follow. The UE 204 can choose a DRX cycle based on the type of SL service provided to the UE 204. For example, when the UE 204 is engaged in SL communication for V2X services, the UE 204 can choose a shorter DRX cycle due to the potential high speed of vehicles. The UE 204 can also choose the DRX cycle based on quality of service (QoS) profiles including priority, packet delay budget of the SL communications, or other QoS factors.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the invention of Hosseini et al. as taught by Sun et al. for purpose of allowing a UE to choose a multiple different DRX configurations.
For claim 20, the claim has features similar to claim 10. Therefore, the claim is also rejected for the same reason in claim 10.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 12-17 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.
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 extension fee 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.
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/DAI PHUONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
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