DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/04/22 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 10-20 in the reply filed on 1/29/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 1-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 1/29/2026.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claim(s) 10, 11, 13, 15-17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoang et al. US 20240407001 (hereinafter “Hoang”) in view of Park et al. US 20240357702 (hereinafter “Park”)
As to claim 10:
Hoang discloses:
A sidelink transmission method, applied to a first communication device, wherein the method comprises: determining at least one sidelink resource; and determining, based on an active time corresponding to at least one destination, a first destination corresponding to the at least one sidelink resource, (“The Tx WTRU may determine a first resource selection window and a second resource selection window. The first resource selection window may be associated with an active time of a receiving wireless transmit/receive unit (Rx WTRU). The second resource selection window may be associated with an inactive time of the Rx WTRU. The Tx WTRU may determine a first number of candidate resources associated with the first resource selection window.”, Hoang [0003])
wherein the at least one destination comprises a sidelink SL multicast destination and/or an SL unicast destination, (“Vehicular communication is a mode of communication that may include a plurality of WTRUs communicating with each other. The WTRUs may communicate directly, for example, via a PC5 interface (e.g., sidelink interface). Vehicular communication may utilize vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications for the WTRUs to communicate.”, Hoang [0078]) (“V2X-capable WTRUs may support different types of traffic: broadcast, multicast, and/or unicast.”, Hoang [0089])
and the at least one sidelink transmission resource is used for transmission corresponding to the first destination, (“The Tx WTRU may select one or more (re) transmission resources. The selected one or more (re) transmission resources may be from the second number of candidate resources associated with the first resource selection window.”, Hoang [0003])
Hoang as described above does not explicitly teach:
wherein the active time corresponding to the SL multicast destination comprises a running time of at least one of an SL discontinuous reception DRX onduration timer and an inactivity timer;
or the active time corresponding to the SL multicast destination comprises a running time of at least one of the following timers: an SL DRX onduration timer, the inactivity timer, and a retransmission timer of a first SL process that meets a first condition.
However, Park further teaches active time of SL multicast destination which includes:
wherein the active time corresponding to the SL multicast destination comprises a running time of at least one of an SL discontinuous reception DRX onduration timer and an inactivity timer; or the active time corresponding to the SL multicast destination comprises a running time of at least one of the following timers: an SL DRX onduration timer, the inactivity timer, and a retransmission timer of a first SL process that meets a first condition. (“In various embodiments of the present disclosure, SL groupcast communication may be replaced with SL multicast communication, SL one-to-many communication, or the like. Hereinafter, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure will be described.”, Park [0148]) (“For example, time that the SL DRX onDuration timer is running, time that the SL DRX inactivity timer is running, time that the SL DRX retransmission timer is running, or time that the DRX retransmission timer is running may be a time included in the active time of the RX UE.”, Park [0200])
Hoang and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include active time of SL multicast destination as described in Park into Hoang. By modifying the method to include active time of SL multicast destination as taught by Park, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228] and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 11:
Hoang discloses:
The method according to claim 10, wherein determining, based on the active time corresponding to the at least one destination, the first destination corresponding to the at least one sidelink resource comprises: a time domain location of the at least one sidelink resource falls within an active time corresponding to the first destination, or the at least one sidelink resource falls within the active time corresponding to the first destination. (“The Tx WTRU may determine a first resource selection window and a second resource selection window. The first resource selection window may be associated with an active time of a receiving wireless transmit/receive unit (Rx WTRU). The second resource selection window may be associated with an inactive time of the Rx WTRU. The Tx WTRU may determine a first number of candidate resources associated with the first resource selection window.”, Hoang [0003])
As to claim 13:
Hoang as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the first condition comprises: a NACK is received on at least one PSFCH corresponding to the first SL process; or a quantity of NACKs received in the first SL process is a group size, less 1, corresponding to the first destination.
However, Park further teaches NACK transmission which includes:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the first condition comprises: a NACK is received on at least one PSFCH corresponding to the first SL process; or a quantity of NACKs received in the first SL process is a group size, less 1, corresponding to the first destination. (“In step S610, the first UE may transmit a PSCCH (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI) or 1.sup.st-stage SCI) to a second UE based on the resource scheduling. In step S620, the first UE may transmit a PSSCH (e.g., 2.sup.nd-stage SCI, MAC PDU, data, etc.) related to the PSCCH to the second UE. In step S630, the first UE may receive a PSFCH related to the PSCCH/PSSCH from the second UE. For example, HARQ feedback information (e.g., NACK information or ACK information) may be received from the second UE through the PSFCH”, Park [0092])
Hoang and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include NACK transmission as described in Park into Hoang. By modifying the method to include NACK transmission as taught by Park, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228] and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 15:
Hoang as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 13, wherein that the NACK is received on at least one PSFCH corresponding to the first SL process comprises: the NACK is received on each of K PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process, wherein K is a total quantity of PSFCH resources; the NACK is received on at least n PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process; or the NACK is received on all PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process, wherein n is a positive integer.
However, Park further teaches NACK transmission which includes:
The method according to claim 13, wherein that the NACK is received on at least one PSFCH corresponding to the first SL process comprises: the NACK is received on each of K PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process, wherein K is a total quantity of PSFCH resources; the NACK is received on at least n PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process; or the NACK is received on all PSFCHs corresponding to the first SL process, wherein n is a positive integer. (“In step S610, the first UE may transmit a PSCCH (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI) or 1.sup.st-stage SCI) to a second UE based on the resource scheduling. In step S620, the first UE may transmit a PSSCH (e.g., 2.sup.nd-stage SCI, MAC PDU, data, etc.) related to the PSCCH to the second UE. In step S630, the first UE may receive a PSFCH related to the PSCCH/PSSCH from the second UE. For example, HARQ feedback information (e.g., NACK information or ACK information) may be received from the second UE through the PSFCH”, Park [0092])
Hoang and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include NACK transmission as described in Park into Hoang. By modifying the method to include NACK transmission as taught by Park, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228] and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 16:
Hoang as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 13, wherein that the quantity of NACKs corresponding to the first SL process is the group size, less 1, corresponding to the first destination comprises: an SL multicast HARQ manner 2 is applied to the first SL process, wherein the SL multicast HARQ manner 2 is used to indicate that a feedback corresponding to an SL HARQ process comprises an acknowledgement ACK or the negative acknowledgement NACK.
However, Park further teaches NACK transmission which includes:
The method according to claim 13, wherein that the quantity of NACKs corresponding to the first SL process is the group size, less 1, corresponding to the first destination comprises: an SL multicast HARQ manner 2 is applied to the first SL process, wherein the SL multicast HARQ manner 2 is used to indicate that a feedback corresponding to an SL HARQ process comprises an acknowledgement ACK or the negative acknowledgement NACK. (“In step S610, the first UE may transmit a PSCCH (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI) or 1.sup.st-stage SCI) to a second UE based on the resource scheduling. In step S620, the first UE may transmit a PSSCH (e.g., 2.sup.nd-stage SCI, MAC PDU, data, etc.) related to the PSCCH to the second UE. In step S630, the first UE may receive a PSFCH related to the PSCCH/PSSCH from the second UE. For example, HARQ feedback information (e.g., NACK information or ACK information) may be received from the second UE through the PSFCH. In step S640, the first UE may transmit/report HARQ feedback information to the base station through the PUCCH or the PUSCH. For example, the HARQ feedback information reported to the base station may be information generated by the first UE based on the HARQ feedback information received from the second UE. For example, the HARQ feedback information reported to the base station may be information generated by the first UE based on a pre-configured rule. For example, the DCI may be a DCI for SL scheduling. For example, a format of the DCI may be a DCI format 3_0 or a DCI format 3_1.”, Park [0092]) (“In various embodiments of the present disclosure, SL groupcast communication may be replaced with SL multicast communication, SL one-to-many communication, or the like. Hereinafter, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure will be described.”, Park [0148]) (“Groupcast option 2: After the receiving UE decodes the PSCCH of which the target is the receiving UE, if the receiving UE fails in decoding of the transport block related to the PSCCH, the receiving UE may transmit HARQ-NACK to the transmitting UE through the PSFCH. In addition, if the receiving UE decodes the PSCCH of which the target is the receiving UE and if the receiving UE successfully decodes the transport block related to the PSCCH, the receiving UE may transmit the HARQ-ACK to the transmitting UE through the PSFCH.”, Park [0150]) (Examiner’s Note: every time a receiving UE fails to decode a message, the receiving UE transmits HARQ-NACK to the UE that transmitted the message. This means the number of NACK will always be N-1 where N is the number of devices in the group. For example, if there are 3 devices where there’s one device on the transmitting end and 2 devices on the receiving end, the two receiving devices would send two NACKs to the transmitting device if they both fail to decode the message.)
Hoang and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include NACK transmission as described in Park into Hoang. By modifying the method to include NACK transmission as taught by Park, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228] and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 17:
Hoang discloses:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the active time comprises an active time corresponding to SL DRX. (“The WTRU may determine whether to trigger resource selection and/or the set of slots to trigger resource (re)selection (e.g., for a TB targeting a DRX Rx WTRU) and/or if a SL DRX is (pre-)configured to the Tx WTRU based on one or more of the following: the QoS of the TB, the active time of the Tx WTRU, the active time of the Rx WTRU, the channel busy ratio (CBR) of the resource pool, or the cast type of the TB.”, Hoang [0101])
As to claim 19:
Hoang as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the received PSFCH comprises a received SL HARQ feedback.
However, Park further teaches SL HARQ feedback which includes:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the received PSFCH comprises a received SL HARQ feedback. (“In step S610, the first UE may transmit a PSCCH (e.g., sidelink control information (SCI) or 1.sup.st-stage SCI) to a second UE based on the resource scheduling. In step S620, the first UE may transmit a PSSCH (e.g., 2.sup.nd-stage SCI, MAC PDU, data, etc.) related to the PSCCH to the second UE. In step S630, the first UE may receive a PSFCH related to the PSCCH/PSSCH from the second UE. For example, HARQ feedback information (e.g., NACK information or ACK information) may be received from the second UE through the PSFCH. In step S640, the first UE may transmit/report HARQ feedback information to the base station through the PUCCH or the PUSCH. For example, the HARQ feedback information reported to the base station may be information generated by the first UE based on the HARQ feedback information received from the second UE. For example, the HARQ feedback information reported to the base station may be information generated by the first UE based on a pre-configured rule. For example, the DCI may be a DCI for SL scheduling. For example, a format of the DCI may be a DCI format 3_0 or a DCI format 3_1.”, Park [0092]) (“In various embodiments of the present disclosure, SL groupcast communication may be replaced with SL multicast communication, SL one-to-many communication, or the like. Hereinafter, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure will be described.”, Park [0148]) (“Groupcast option 2: After the receiving UE decodes the PSCCH of which the target is the receiving UE, if the receiving UE fails in decoding of the transport block related to the PSCCH, the receiving UE may transmit HARQ-NACK to the transmitting UE through the PSFCH. In addition, if the receiving UE decodes the PSCCH of which the target is the receiving UE and if the receiving UE successfully decodes the transport block related to the PSCCH, the receiving UE may transmit the HARQ-ACK to the transmitting UE through the PSFCH.”, Park [0150]) (Examiner’s Note: every time a receiving UE fails to decode a message, the receiving UE transmits HARQ-NACK to the UE that transmitted the message. This means the number of NACK will always be N-1 where N is the number of devices in the group. For example, if there are 3 devices where there’s one device on the transmitting end and 2 devices on the receiving end, the two receiving devices would send two NACKs to the transmitting device if they both fail to decode the message.)
Hoang and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include SL HARQ feedback as described in Park into Hoang. By modifying the method to include SL HARQ feedback as taught by Park, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228] and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
Claim(s) 12, 14, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hoang in view of Park, as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of Freda et al. US 20240381485 (hereinafter “Freda”)
As to claim 12:
The combination of Hoang and Park as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 10, wherein an active time corresponding to an SL unicast destination comprises a running time of at least one of the SL DRX onduration timer, the inactivity timer, and a retransmission timer that corresponds to an SL process of the SL unicast destination receiving a physical sidelink feedback channel PSFCH, and a waiting time to receive a channel state information CSI report.
However, Freda further teaches active time for unicast links which includes:
The method according to claim 10, wherein an active time corresponding to an SL unicast destination (“In one example, a WTRU may be configured with a SL DRX behavior (e.g. a DRX configuration with a set of timers) for broadcast receptions. In addition, a WTRU may be configured with an additional DRX behavior for each of the unicast link(s) active at the WTRU.”, Freda [0255]) comprises a running time of at least one of the SL DRX onduration timer, the inactivity timer, and a retransmission timer that corresponds to an SL process of the SL unicast destination receiving a physical sidelink feedback channel PSFCH, (“A WTRU may monitor a first stage SCI (e.g., SCI-1) only in OFF-duration (or inactive time) and the WTRU may monitor a first and a second stage SCIs (e.g., SCI-1 and SCI-2) in ON-duration (or active time). Hereafter, active time, On-duration, a time window wherein a WTRU may monitor PSCCH, and active window may be used interchangeably.”, Freda [0212])
and a waiting time to receive a channel state information CSI report. (“a WTRU may provide CSI feedback only when such feedback can be provided within the on-duration (or some expected decoding period) of the said WTRU or the peer WTRU, otherwise, the WTRU may drop the CSI feedback transmission.”, Freda [0211])
Hoang, Freda, and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include active time for unicast links as described in Freda into Hoang as modified by Park. By modifying the method to include active time for unicast links as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228], Freda [0035], and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 14:
The combination of Hoang and Park as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 13, wherein the group size corresponding to the first destination comprises a quantity of devices or a quantity of members in a multicast group corresponding to the first destination.
However, Freda further teaches group size indication which includes:
The method according to claim 13, wherein the group size corresponding to the first destination comprises a quantity of devices or a quantity of members in a multicast group corresponding to the first destination. (“The WTRU receives indication from upper layers of the establishment of a sidelink unicast, or sidelink group (e.g. the WTRU receives group information and/or group size and/or group member ID).”, Freda [0366])
Hoang, Freda, and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include group size indication as described in Freda into Hoang as modified by Park. By modifying the method to include group size indication as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228], Freda [0035], and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 18:
The combination of Hoang and Park as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the waiting time to receive the CSI report comprises: a time between sending of an SL CSI request and receiving of the SL CSI report, or a time indicated by a latency bound of the SL CSI report after the SL CSI request is sent, or a time in which receiving of the CSI report is expected after the SL CSI request is sent.
However, Freda further teaches CSI report wait time which includes:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the waiting time to receive the CSI report comprises: a time between sending of an SL CSI request and receiving of the SL CSI report, or a time indicated by a latency bound of the SL CSI report after the SL CSI request is sent, or a time in which receiving of the CSI report is expected after the SL CSI request is sent. (“Reception of a CSI feedback request. Specifically, a WTRU may change from a first activity state to a second activity state (e.g. monitoring a pool associated with an inactive state to monitoring a pool associated with an active state) upon reception of a CSI feedback request. A WTRU may further reset an inactivity timer upon such reception. [0462] A WTRU may further start such inactivity timer only upon transmission of a CSI feedback following a reception of a CSI request.”, Freda [0457]) (Examiner’s Note: wait time is the time between receiving the CSI feedback request and transmitting the CSI feedback following a reception of the CSI request)
Hoang, Freda, and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include CSI report wait time as described in Freda into Hoang as modified by Park. By modifying the method to include CSI report wait time as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228], Freda [0035], and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
As to claim 20:
The combination of Hoang and Park as described above does not explicitly teach:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the active time corresponding to the at least one destination is used to indicate a time in which a receiving communication device corresponding to the at least one destination listens to SCI for the at least one destination, and the SCI comprises first-level SCI and/or second-level SCI, or the SCI comprises second-level SCI on a PSCCH and a PSSCH.
However, Freda further teaches first level and second level SCI which includes:
The method according to claim 10, wherein the active time corresponding to the at least one destination is used to indicate a time in which a receiving communication device corresponding to the at least one destination listens to SCI for the at least one destination, and the SCI comprises first-level SCI and/or second-level SCI, or the SCI comprises second-level SCI on a PSCCH and a PSSCH. (“The type of PSCCH decoding. For example, the WTRU may decode for a first set of SCI transmissions when active, and may decode of a second set of SCI transmissions when not active. For example, the WTRU may decode first stage SCI only when active, and may decode both first and second stage SCI when not active. For example, the WTRU may decode a first SCI (e.g. SCI-1) when not active, and may only decode the associated SCI (e.g. SCI-2) when active. For example, in one application of the above, a WTRU may change from monitoring of SCI-1 only to monitoring of both SCI-1 and SCI-2 based on fixed time periods for SCI-2 monitoring and/or a time since last successful decoding of SCI-2.”, Freda [0188])
Hoang, Freda, and Park are analogous because they pertain to timer based sidelink transmissions.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include first level and second level SCI as described in Freda into Hoang as modified by Park. By modifying the method to include first level and second level SCI as taught by Freda, the benefits of improved reliability (Park [0228], Freda [0035], and Hoang [0035]) are achieved.
Conclusion
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/A.C.K./
Examiner
Art Unit 2471
/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471