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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-8 received on 2/2/2024 have been examined, of which claims 1, 7-8 are independent.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Clam 5 recites a (first) step of performing in a case where a bandwidth part including the first frequency resource and not including the second frequency resource is set. The claim depends on claim 3, and claim 3 also recites step of performing by setting a bandwidth part including the first frequency resource and not including the second frequency resource. It is unclear if both of these “bandwidth part” refer to same or different limitation or how the limitations are different.
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.
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.
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.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 20220174682) in view of Kimura et al. (US 20190173612).
Regarding claim 1, Li teaches a terminal device (WTRU 102, fig 1A-1D, 1F) comprising:
one or more processors (processor 118, fig 1F); and
one or more memories (non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, fig 1F) that store a computer-readable instruction for causing, when executed by the one or more processors (para 122: methods and processes described herein can be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on a computer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by a processor, such as processors 118, cause the processor to perform and/or implement the systems, methods and processes described), the one or more processors to:
execute reception processing a range of a predetermined frequency band on a received signal (para 108-110: the transmit/receive element 122 of a UE can be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a of FIG. 1A) over the air interface 115/116/117 or another UE over the air interface 115d/116d/117d, the transceiver 120 can be configured to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122; para 153: in NR V2X model, the Uu interface and sidelink can operate on a shared carrier, the resources scheduled for very low latency or high priority DL or UL transmissions on Uu (e.g. PDSCH and/or PUSCH) can be partially or fully overlapped in time and/or frequency with the resources allocated to the sidelink transmission with following alternatives as shown in fig 2); and
execute, in a case where a signal transmitted from a base station device with a first frequency resource and a signal transmitted from another terminal device with a second frequency resource are included in the range of the predetermined frequency band (fig 2, cases A and C; para 153-157: Case A: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with the dynamically scheduled sidelink transmission; Case C: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with a configured grant sidelink transmission), control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource (fig 2, A, C; para 158: the Uu transmission can have a higher priority or low latency requirement comparing to the sidelink transmission, to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission, the sidelink transmission can be preempted (not received)).
Li teaches the control to handle inter-UE prioritization for NR-V2X including preemption of sidelink transmission to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission (to/from base station) (abstract, para 158). The reference teaches reception of signals, but does not teach reception processing including the Fourier transform on specific frequency or frequency range. Kimura is directed to channel resource control that enables degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device to be avoided when a sidelink channel is set (abstract).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58; para 428: if the information is control information for downlink or sidelink reception or backhaul reception (Yes in Step S225), the terminal device 2 then ascertains the frequency resource allocated in the target unit time resource, a modulation/encoding method, and the like from the decoded control information and sets them for the device itself (Step S226). Then, the terminal device 2 receives and decodes a physical data channel (shared channel) of the target time resource and frequency resource (Step S227)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 7, Li teaches a control method for execution by a terminal device (abstract: electronic device configured to schedule transmission via sidelink, identify preemption by another transmission and control transmission; WTRU 102, fig 1A-1D, 1F) configured to execute reception processing a range of a predetermined frequency band on a received signal (para 108-110: the transmit/receive element 122 of a UE can be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a of FIG. 1A) over the air interface 115/116/117 or another UE over the air interface 115d/116d/117d, the transceiver 120 can be configured to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122; para 153: in NR V2X model, the Uu interface and sidelink can operate on a shared carrier, the resources scheduled for very low latency or high priority DL or UL transmissions on Uu (e.g. PDSCH and/or PUSCH) can be partially or fully overlapped in time and/or frequency with the resources allocated to the sidelink transmission with following alternatives as shown in fig 2), the method comprising:
executing, in a case where a signal transmitted from a base station device with a first frequency resource and a signal transmitted from another terminal device with a second frequency resource are included in the range of the predetermined frequency band (fig 2, cases A and C; para 153-157: Case A: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with the dynamically scheduled sidelink transmission; Case C: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with a configured grant sidelink transmission), control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource (para 158: the Uu transmission can have a higher priority or low latency requirement comparing to the sidelink transmission. To guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission, the sidelink transmission can be preempted (not received)).
Li teaches the control to handle inter-UE prioritization for NR-V2X including preemption of sidelink transmission to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission (to/from base station) (abstract, para 158). The reference teaches reception of signals, but does not teach reception processing including the Fourier transform on specific frequency or frequency range. Kimura is directed to channel resource control that enables degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device to be avoided when a sidelink channel is set (abstract).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58; para 428: if the information is control information for downlink or sidelink reception or backhaul reception (Yes in Step S225), the terminal device 2 then ascertains the frequency resource allocated in the target unit time resource, a modulation/encoding method, and the like from the decoded control information and sets them for the device itself (Step S226). Then, the terminal device 2 receives and decodes a physical data channel (shared channel) of the target time resource and frequency resource (Step S227)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 8, Li teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium (non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132, fig 1F) that stores a program for causing a computer provided in a terminal device (para 122: methods and processes described herein can be embodied in the form of computer executable instructions (e.g., program code) stored on a computer-readable storage medium which instructions, when executed by a processor, such as processors 118, cause the processor to perform and/or implement the systems, methods and processes described) configured to execute reception processing targeting a range of a predetermined frequency band on a received signal (para 108-110: the transmit/receive element 122 of a UE can be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a of FIG. 1A) over the air interface 115/116/117 or another UE over the air interface 115d/116d/117d, the transceiver 120 can be configured to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122; para 153: in NR V2X model, the Uu interface and sidelink can operate on a shared carrier, the resources scheduled for very low latency or high priority DL or UL transmissions on Uu (e.g. PDSCH and/or PUSCH) can be partially or fully overlapped in time and/or frequency with the resources allocated to the sidelink transmission with following alternatives as shown in fig 2) to:
execute, in a case where a signal transmitted from a base station device with a first frequency resource and a signal transmitted from another terminal device with a second frequency resource are included in the range of the predetermined frequency band (fig 2, cases A and C; para 153-157: Case A: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with the dynamically scheduled sidelink transmission; Case C: Dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the Uu interface (e.g. PDSCH) can be overlapped/collided with a configured grant sidelink transmission), control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource (para 158: the Uu transmission can have a higher priority or low latency requirement comparing to the sidelink transmission. To guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission, the sidelink transmission can be preempted (not received)).
Li teaches the control to handle inter-UE prioritization for NR-V2X including preemption of sidelink transmission to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission (to/from base station) (abstract, para 158). The reference teaches reception of signals, but does not teach reception processing including the Fourier transform on specific frequency or frequency range. Kimura is directed to channel resource control that enables degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device to be avoided when a sidelink channel is set (abstract).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58; para 428: if the information is control information for downlink or sidelink reception or backhaul reception (Yes in Step S225), the terminal device 2 then ascertains the frequency resource allocated in the target unit time resource, a modulation/encoding method, and the like from the decoded control information and sets them for the device itself (Step S226). Then, the terminal device 2 receives and decodes a physical data channel (shared channel) of the target time resource and frequency resource (Step S227)). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 2, Li further teaches wherein the control includes
performing control to execute the reception processing on frequency resources including the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource, in a first timeslot in which a signal is transmitted from the base station device in both the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource (as shown in fig 2 and described in para 153-158, case A and C, slot #2 includes the DCI (from base station) and PDSCH (from base station) in two different frequency resources and both are received), and
performing control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource, in a second timeslot in which a signal is transmitted from the base station device with the first frequency resource and a signal is transmitted from the other terminal device with the second frequency resource (as shown in fig 2 and described in para 153-158, case A and C, slot #2 includes the PDSCH (from base station) and sidelink transmission (from other UE) in two different frequency resources, where the sidelink transmission is preempted (not received) to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 3, Li further teaches wherein the control includes performing control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource (fig 2, A, C; para 158: the Uu transmission can have a higher priority or low latency requirement comparing to the sidelink transmission, to guarantee the transmission/reception of the higher priority data to/from Uu transmission, the sidelink transmission can be preempted (not received)), by setting a bandwidth part including the first frequency resource and not including the second frequency resource (para 314-316: the UE also need to determine the frequency region referred by the SL-CI (sidelink cancellation indication), the frequency region can be the implicitly indicated, e.g., the frequency region can be the whole sidelink BWP; or the frequency region can be the frequency bands shared by the Uu traffic and the sidelink traffic).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 4, Li further teaches wherein the control includes setting, for each timeslot (para 307-313: determining time region and frequency region referred by the SL-CL), a bandwidth part including the first frequency resource and not including the second frequency resource or a bandwidth part including both the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource (para 314: the frequency region can be the whole sidelink BWP; or the frequency region can be the frequency bands shared by the Uu traffic and the sidelink traffic; para 319: the canceled time resource and the canceled frequency resource can be jointly indicated. E.g., the DCI carrying the SL-CI can contain a field sidelink cancellation indicator to indicate the actual cancelled time and frequency resources).
Regarding claim 5, Li further teaches wherein the control includes
performing control to execute the reception processing on the first frequency resource and to not execute the reception processing on the second frequency resource, in a case where a bandwidth part including the first frequency resource and not including the second frequency resource is set (para 314-316: the UE also need to determine the frequency region referred by the SL-CI (sidelink cancellation indication), the frequency region can be the implicitly indicated, e.g., the frequency region can be the whole sidelink BWP; or the frequency region can be the frequency bands shared by the Uu traffic and the sidelink traffic), and
performing control to execute the reception processing on frequency resources including the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource, in a case where a bandwidth part including both the first frequency resource and the second frequency resource is set (para 314: the frequency region can be the whole sidelink BWP; or the frequency region can be the frequency bands shared by the Uu traffic and the sidelink traffic; para 319: the canceled time resource and the canceled frequency resource can be jointly indicated. E.g., the DCI carrying the SL-CI can contain a field sidelink cancellation indicator to indicate the actual cancelled time and frequency resources).
Kimura further teaches reception processing including Fourier transform (para 253: the wireless receiving unit 2057 performs conversion into an intermediate frequency (down conversion), removal of an unnecessary frequency component, control of an amplification level such that a signal level is appropriately maintained, quadrature demodulation based on an in-phase component and a quadrature component of a received signal, conversion from an analog signal into a digital signal, removal of a guard interval (GI), and/or extraction of a signal in the frequency domain by fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the uplink signal received via the transceiving antenna 209; fig 46, 58). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine preemption of sidelink transmission for downlink transmission as taught by Li with reception procedure including Fourier transform as taught by Kimura for the benefit of avoiding degradation in the quality of communication between a base station device and a terminal device as taught by Kimura in abstract.
Regarding claim 6, Li further teaches wherein the control includes setting the bandwidth part (para 314-316: the UE also need to determine the frequency region referred by the SL-CI (sidelink cancellation indication), the frequency region can be the implicitly indicated, e.g., the frequency region can be the whole sidelink BWP; or the frequency region can be the frequency bands shared by the Uu traffic and the sidelink traffic), based on a message for setting the bandwidth part received from the base station device (para 318: the DCI carrying the SL-CI can contain two fields time resource cancellation indicator and frequency resource cancellation indicator to indicate the actual cancelled time and frequency resources).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
- Loehr et al. (US 20200259627): abstract, fig 2, 8: apparatus receives 805 one or more UL BWP configurations, receives 810 a SL BWP configuration, and selectively deactivates 825 one of the SL BWP and the active UL BWP
- Fan et al. (US 20220263613): abstract: improve resource utilization during D2D communication, the first terminal device can multiplex the uplink time-frequency resource to send a sidelink signal to a second terminal device when an interference value to the network device during sending of the sidelink signal meets a first rule.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RINA C PANCHOLI whose telephone number is (571)272-2679. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30am-4pm.
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/RINA C PANCHOLI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 1/27/2026