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 filed 01/02/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument in pages 7-9, the applicant asserts that “Therefore, the combination of Zhao and Manolakos does not teach or suggest "the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot," as claimed in Claims 1 and 11.” Examiner respectively disagrees.
As indicated by the office action, there are two scenarios in par. 211, 212 of MANOLAKOS, “Tx UE 1330a receives the slot indication signal 1340… the Tx UE 1330a may choose mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b… assigns a specific mini slot (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) for a Tx UE 1330d to transmit to a Rx UE 1330e”, which indicating UE 1330a assigned or allocated mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 in FIG. 13D for transmission and UE 1330d assigned and allocated mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D for transmission, which would read on "the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot." In another scenario, in par. 211 of MANOLAKOS, “For example, the Tx UE 1330a may choose mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b, and may choose mini slot 2 (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b…the Tx UE 1330a may then transmit a first sidelink signal 1341 including mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to Rx UE 1303b and transmit a second sidelink signal 1342 including mini slot 2 (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to Rx UE 1330c for sidelink positioning,” which indicating Rx UE 1330b assigned or allocated mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) for receiving and UE 1330c assigned or allocated mini slot 2 (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) for receiving, , which indicating UE 1330a assigned or allocated mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 in FIG. 13D for transmission and UE 1330d assigned and allocated mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D for transmission, which would read on "the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot." Therefore, MANOLAKOS teaches "the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot" and the combination of ZHAO and MANOLAKOS would teach the claims.
Therefore, the rejection is maintained.
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082 with continuation app. PCT/CN2022/111065 filed 08/09/2022) in view of MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234 with foreign app. GR 20220100337 filed on 04/26/2022).
Regarding claims 1, 11, ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082) teaches a method comprising:
detecting, by a first user equipment (UE), first sidelink (SL) control information (SCI) of a second UE (par. 95, 96, The first terminal device acquires at least one PRS configuration. The first terminal device may determine the first PRS configuration from the at least one PRS configuration based on the first information…the at least one PRS configuration acquired by the first terminal device is acquired by the first terminal device based on pre-configured information, network configuration information, or first signaling…The first signaling is transmitted by a terminal device other than the first terminal device to the first terminal device, for example, the first signaling is transmitted by a second terminal device to the first terminal device; par. 199, 217, the first terminal device acquires second signaling from a second terminal device, wherein the second signaling includes the first information, such that the first terminal device acquires the first information. The second signaling includes at least one of: PC5-RRC signaling; a MAC CE; or an SCI); and
allocating, by the first UE in a second SCI, a first resource in a slot for SL-positioning reference signal (PRS) symbols of the first UE, based on the first SCI (par. 97, The first PRS configuration is used to configure or determine a time-frequency resource of the PRS transmitted or received by the first terminal device, i.e., a PRS pattern of the PRS),
wherein a second resource for SL-PRS symbols of the second UE, and the first resource and the second resource, and includes a first symbol for automatic gain control (AGC) (par. 97, the first information includes at least one of: identification information of the first terminal device; time domain resource information of the PRS; frequency domain resource information of the PRS; positioning frequency layer information of the PRS; resource pool information; a quantity of first time domain units for performing an SL transmission in a second time domain unit; a quantity of first time domain units for transmitting the PRS in a second time domain unit; whether a second time domain unit includes a PSFCH resource; whether the PRS is mappable to a first time domain unit carrying a PSCCH; a PRS configuration of another terminal device performing cooperative positioning with the first terminal device in a first terminal device group; fig. 25, par. 170, AGC symbol and SL PRS).
However, ZHAO does not teach wherein a second resource of the slot is for SL-PRS symbols of the second UE, and the first resource and the second resource are separated by a first symbol for automatic gain control (AGC) training for subsequent SL-PRS symbols, and
wherein the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot.
But, MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein a second resource of the slot is for SL-PRS symbols of the second UE, and the first resource and the second resource are separated by a first symbol for automatic gain control (AGC) training for subsequent SL-PRS symbols (fig. 12B, 13A, par. 163, 188, 195, AGC in the first symbol dividing mini slots for the corresponding UEs; par. 73, 155, gain setting), and
wherein the first resource and the second resource are allocated to the first and second UEs within the slot (par. 211, 212, Tx UE 1330a receives the slot indication signal 1340… the Tx UE 1330a may choose mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b… assigns a specific mini slot (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) for a Tx UE 1330d to transmit to a Rx UE 1330e; par. 211, For example, the Tx UE 1330a may choose mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b, and may choose mini slot 2 (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) of the designated slot (e.g., slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to transmit sidelink transmissions to Rx UE 1330b… the Tx UE 1330a may then transmit a first sidelink signal 1341 including mini slot 1 (e.g., mini slot 1 1310a of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to Rx UE 1303b and transmit a second sidelink signal 1342 including mini slot 2 (e.g., mini slot 2 1310b of slot 1303 of FIG. 13D) to Rx UE 1330c for sidelink positioning).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by MANOLAKOS in the system of ZHAO to allocate resource.
The motivation would have been to provide very low latency for critical data communications as well as the minimization of interference to other radio frequency (RF) links.
Regarding claims 2, 12, MANOLAKOS teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first SCI indicates the second resource, and the second resource occupies fewer symbols than a maximum number of available symbols for SL-PRS transmission (fig. 11C, 12B, par. 97, 184, mini slot includes blank symbols and SL PRS, which would indicating the SL-PRS occupies less than maximum number of available symbols).
Regarding claims 3, 13, ZHAO teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining a reference signal received power (RSRP) based on the first SCI (par. 59, the measured RSRP is greater than an SL-RSRP threshold, and it is determined based on resource reservation information in sidelink control information (SCI)); and
comparing the RSRP to a threshold RSRP (par. 59, the measured RSRP is greater than an SL-RSRP threshold, and it is determined based on resource reservation information in sidelink control information (SCI));
wherein the first resource is allocated based on the comparison (par. 59, the terminal device excludes the resource from the resource set A. In the case that remaining resources in the resource set A are less than X % of all resources in the resource set A before the resource exclusion).
Regarding claims 4, 14, ZHAO teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first resource is allocated based on random selection of resources from a resource selection window (par. 57, 59, 60, the terminal device uses all available resources within a resource selection window as a resource set A).
Claim(s) 5, 6, 15, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082 with continuation app. PCT/CN2022/111065 filed 08/09/2022) and MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234 with foreign app. GR 20220100337 filed on 04/26/2022) as applied to claims 1, 11 above, and further in view of WANG et al. (US 20220346120).
Regarding claims 5, 15, ZHAO teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the slot comprises physical SL control channel (PSCCH) symbols comprising the first SCI, second SCI for the first UE (par. 59), and a transmission of the first SCI and the second SCI (par. 59).
However, ZHAO does not teach a repetition of the SCI.
But, WANG et al. (US 20220346120) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches a repetition of the SCI (par. 86).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by WANG in the system of ZHAO and MANOLAKOS to repeat SCI.
The motivation would have been to provide reliable transmission of SCI.
Regarding claims 6, 16, ZHAO teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the slot comprises a second symbol for AGC training at a beginning of the slot, the second symbol is for AGC training for the PSCCH symbols and SL-PRS symbols preceding the first symbol for AGC training (fig. 10, AGC, PSCCH, SL PRS).
Claim(s) 7, 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082 with continuation app. PCT/CN2022/111065 filed 08/09/2022), MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234 with foreign app. GR 20220100337 filed on 04/26/2022), and WANG et al. (US 20220346120) as applied to claims 5, 15 above, and further in view of LI et al. (US 20210219268) and KO et al. (US 20240291534).
Regarding claims 7, 17, ZHAO does not teach the method of claim 5, further comprising measuring a channel busy ratio (CBR) on the PSCCH symbols or the SL-PRS symbols, wherein the CBR is calculated as:
a first ratio of a first number of SL-PRS resources above a threshold received signal strength indicator (RSSI); or
a second ratio of a first number of PSCCH resources above the threshold RSSI.
But, LI et al. (US 20210219268) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches further comprising measuring a channel busy ratio (CBR) on the PSCCH symbols or the SL-PRS symbols (par. 465, a UE may estimate the New Radio Channel Busy Ratio (NR-CBR) and New Radio Channel occupancy Ratio (NR-CR) before reserving a resource or transmitting or retransmitting a packet…the NR-CBR may provide an indication of a channel congestion level, and may be calculated as the amount of sub-channels or PRBs in the previous SCBR slots which have an average SL-RSRP or SL-SINR or SL-RSSI higher than a CBR threshold MCBR), wherein the CBR is calculated as:
a first ratio of a first number of SL-PRS resources above a threshold received signal strength indicator (RSSI) (par. 465, a UE may estimate the New Radio Channel Busy Ratio (NR-CBR) and New Radio Channel occupancy Ratio (NR-CR) before reserving a resource or transmitting or retransmitting a packet…the NR-CBR may provide an indication of a channel congestion level, and may be calculated as the amount of sub-channels or PRBs in the previous SCBR slots which have an average SL-RSRP or SL-SINR or SL-RSSI higher than a CBR threshold MCBR); or
a second ratio of a first number of PSCCH resources above the threshold RSSI (par. 465, a UE may estimate the New Radio Channel Busy Ratio (NR-CBR) and New Radio Channel occupancy Ratio (NR-CR) before reserving a resource or transmitting or retransmitting a packet…the NR-CBR may provide an indication of a channel congestion level, and may be calculated as the amount of sub-channels or PRBs in the previous SCBR slots which have an average SL-RSRP or SL-SINR or SL-RSSI higher than a CBR threshold MCBR).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LI in the system of ZHAO, MANOLAKOS, and WANG to determine CBR.
The motivation would have been to provide congestion control on the channels.
But, ZHAO does not teach
a first ratio of a first number resources above a threshold to a second number of resources within a duration; or
a second ratio of a first number of resources above the threshold to a second number of resources within the duration.
But, KO et al. (US 20240291534) teaches a first ratio of a first number resources above a threshold to a second number of resources within a duration; or a second ratio of a first number of resources above the threshold to a second number of resources within the duration (par. 198, CBR may denote the number of sub-channels in which a measurement result value of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) has a value greater than or equal to a pre-configured threshold…the CBR may denote a ratio of sub-channels having a value greater than or equal to a pre-configured threshold among sub-channels for a specific duration).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by KO in the system of ZHAO, MANOLAKOS, WANG, and LI to determine CBR.
The motivation would have been to provide the channel occupancy ratio with respect to a priority of each traffic and therefore providing optimize traffic selection for the channel.
Claim(s) 8, 9, 18, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082 with continuation app. PCT/CN2022/111065 filed 08/09/2022) and MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234 with foreign app. GR 20220100337 filed on 04/26/2022) as applied to claims 1, 11 above, and further in view of LI et al. (US 20210219268).
Regarding claims 8, 18, ZHAO does not explicitly teach the method of claim 1, further comprising providing the first resource to the second UE, wherein the second UE allocates the second resource for the SL-PRS symbols of the second UE based at least on the first resource.
But, LI et al. (US 20210219268) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches further comprising providing the first resource to the second UE (par. 449, 450), wherein the second UE allocates the second resource for the SL-PRS symbols of the second UE based at least on the first resource (par. 389, 449, 450, The resources indicated by another UE with scheduling SCI or reserving SCI. These resource are allocated at the same time that the UE will need it to transmit any of its next data TB).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LI in the system of ZHAO and MANOLAKOS to signal allocation.
The motivation would have been to provide prevent collision.
Regarding claims 9, 19, ZHAO does not teach the method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting third SCI of a third UE; identifying a sidelink transmission conflict between the second UE and the third UE;
transmitting, to the second UE or the third UE, a set of preferred or non-preferred resources or an indication of an SL-PRS resource conflict, wherein the second UE or the third UE reallocates corresponding resources to avoid a SL-PRS transmission collision.
But, LI et al. (US 20210219268) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches detecting third SCI of a third UE (par. 430, 438, SCI); identifying a sidelink transmission conflict between the second UE and the third UE (par. 430, 438, SCI);
transmitting, to the second UE or the third UE, a set of preferred or non-preferred resources or an indication of an SL-PRS resource conflict (par. 430, 438), wherein the second UE or the third UE reallocates corresponding resources to avoid a SL-PRS transmission collision (par. 422, 423, 430, 438, 440, 442, the UE checks if pre-emption is enabled (e.g., parameter pre-emption is “1”) from higher layer for higher priority transmissions, or checks the priority level (e.g., parameter priority) from the higher layer which allows to pre-empt the other lower priority data traffic, or checks the latency requirement (e.g., parameter latency allowed or latency max) from the higher layer which permits pre-emption for avoiding delay. Then the UE may decide if it can pre-empt the resources, scheduled or reserved by other UE(s) with higher latency, lower priority, or lower reliability, for its high priority or low latency transmission).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by LI in the system of ZHAO and MANOLAKOS to signal allocation.
The motivation would have been to provide prevent collision.
Claim(s) 10, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHAO et al. (US 20250184082 with continuation app. PCT/CN2022/111065 filed 08/09/2022), MANOLAKOS et al. (US 20250150234 with foreign app. GR 20220100337 filed on 04/26/2022), and LI et al. (US 20210219268) as applied to claims 9, 19 above, and further in view of PANZNER et al. (US 20250024474 supported by provisional app. 63292006 filed on 12/21/2021).
Regarding claims 10, 20, ZHAO does not teach the method of claim 9, wherein the indication of the SL-PRS resource conflict is provided in a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH).
But, PANZNER et al. (US 20250024474) in a similar or same field of endeavor teaches wherein the indication of the SL-PRS resource conflict is provided in a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (par. 63, 64).
Thus, it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filing date of the claimed invention to implement the system or method as taught by PANZNER in the system of ZHAO, MANOLAKOS, and LI to signal resource conflict.
The motivation would have been to improve the efficiency of sidelink wireless communications.
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 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THINH D TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3934. The examiner can normally be reached mon-fri 9-6.
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/THINH D TRAN/for /Thinh Tran/, Patent Examiner of Art Unit 2466 04/23/2026
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