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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/26/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s submission filed 12/26/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 13 are amended. Claims 3 and 20 are cancelled. Claims 1 and 4-18 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues He does not teach “the first terminal apparatus receives indication information of a channel occupancy time from the second terminal apparatus, where the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel or a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel” (see page 8). Applicant’s arguments regarding the teaching of He are moot. Lei, 0026-0027 teaches After successfully performing the channel access procedure, UE 101 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) 1010 to UE 102 in each slot (e.g., slot S, slot S+1, slot S+2…) within the channel occupancy. In some embodiments, SCI 1010 may include an indicator 1010A indicating a remaining duration of the channel occupancy. After receiving SCI 1010, UE 102 may be informed of the remaining duration of the channel occupancy according to the indicator 1010A. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]. Therefore, Lei teaches “the first terminal apparatus receives indication information of a channel occupancy time from the second terminal apparatus, where the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel or a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel.”
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, 5, and 7-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 10785753), Li hereinafter, in view of Lei et al. (US 2023/0328784), Lei hereinafter.
Re. Claim 1, Li teaches
a communication method (Li, Col. 1, lines 16-19: This disclosure generally relates to wireless communication networks, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of handling device-to-device feedback transmission in a wireless communication system.), comprising:
receiving, by a first terminal apparatus, first data from a second terminal apparatus (Li, Col. 1, lines 54-57: In one embodiment, the method includes the first device receiving a sidelink data transmission from a second device within the frequency region of sidelink data transmission in a first TTI.);
determining, by the first terminal apparatus, a feedback time unit in a channel occupancy time , wherein the feedback time unit corresponds to the first data (Li, Col. 1, lines 57-66: The method further includes the first device generating a feedback information associated with the sidelink data transmission. The method also includes the first device determining or deriving a sidelink feedback resource within one frequency region of sidelink feedback transmission among the multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission, wherein the one frequency region of sidelink feedback transmission is determined or derived based on association with the first [Transmission Time Interval] TTI.);
and by the first terminal apparatus, accessing a first channel, transmitting first feedback information on a first frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit (Li, Col. 1, line 66 – Col. 2, line 2: In addition, the method includes the first device performing a sidelink feedback transmission for delivering the feedback information to the second device on the sidelink feedback resource.), and
transmitting second feedback information to the second terminal apparatus on a second frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit (Li, Col. 22, lines 21-24: The general concept of method A is that when a receiver device receives or detects a sidelink data transmission and/or sidelink control transmission, the receiver device may perform multiple sidelink feedback transmissions. And Col. 22, lines 46-47: The multiple sidelink feedback transmissions may be in separate frequency resources.),
wherein the first feedback information is an acknowledgment or a negative acknowledgment for the first data (Li, Col. 14, lines 30-34: In unicast, the receiver UE can feedback multiple ACK/NACK bits in the corresponding PSFCH resource for one PSSCH transmission and each bit can indicate the ACK/NACK for each CBG, similarly to the CBG-based HARQ codebook design in NR.),
the first frequency domain resource is determined based on a time-frequency resource carrying the first data (Li, Col. 22, lines 33-35: In one embodiment, the sidelink control transmission may comprise or may deliver scheduling information for the sidelink data transmission. And Col. 22, lines 50-52: In one embodiment, the scheduling information may indicate the frequency resources for the multiple sidelink feedback transmissions.),
the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource belong to the first channel (Li, Col. 22, lines 35-37: For instance, the scheduling information may indicate which sub-channels are comprised in the sidelink data transmission. [The indication of sub-channels is interpreted as equivalent to the frequency resources being in the same channel.]),
the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource do not overlap (Li, Col. 1, lines 43-54: A method and apparatus are disclosed from the perspective of a first device, wherein the first device is configured with a sidelink resource pool comprising a frequency region of sidelink data transmission and multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission, wherein the multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission in one TTI (Transmission Time Interval) are separately associated with the one frequency region of sidelink data transmission in multiple TTIs, and wherein the multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission in the one TTI are non-overlapped with each other in frequency domain and fully overlapped in time domain.).
Yet, Li does not explicitly teach receiving, by the first terminal apparatus, indication information of a channel occupancy time from the second terminal apparatus, wherein the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel or a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel.
However, in the related art, Lei teaches receiving, by the first terminal apparatus, indication information of a channel occupancy time from the second terminal apparatus (Lei, 0026-0027: After successfully performing the channel access procedure, UE 101 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) 1010 to UE 102 in each slot (e.g., slot S, slot S+1, slot S+2…) within the channel occupancy. In some embodiments, SCI 1010 may include an indicator 1010A indicating a remaining duration of the channel occupancy. After receiving SCI 1010, UE 102 may be informed of the remaining duration of the channel occupancy according to the indicator 1010A. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]),
wherein the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel (Lei, Figs. 1-2 0023: When UE 101 successfully performs channel access Type 1 for unicast communication with UE 102, UE 101 may occupy the channel with a duration (e.g., maximum to 2 ms, 4 ms, 6 ms or 10 ms). And 0027-0028: Accordingly, based on SCI 1010 and indicator 1010A included in SCI 1010, UE 101 may transmit sidelink data 1012 to UE 102 without exceeding the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. … On the other hand, based on SCI 1010 and indicator 1010A included in SCI 1010, UE 102 may receive sidelink data 1012 from UE 101 without exceeding the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]) or
a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel (Lei, Fig. 1, 0029: In some embodiments, UE 101 may reserve resource of PSFCH transmission for UE 102 to transmit sidelink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to UE 101 during the channel occupancy. … In these embodiments, UE 102 may perform channel access Type 2 (i.e., LBT Cat. 2) and transmit PSFCH(s) to UE 101 within the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method and apparatus of handing device-to-device feedback transmission in a wireless communication system of Li with the method and apparatus for sidelink burst transmission of Lei. The resulting invention would avoid missing any transmission of sidelink data (Lei, 0025).
Re. Claim 5, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Li further teaches wherein the second feedback information is replication information of the first feedback information (Li, Col. 24, lines 3-6: The multiple sidelink feedback transmissions may comprise or may deliver the same HARQ feedback for the associated sidelink data transmission and/or sidelink control transmission.), or
the second feedback information is a predefined bit stream (Li, Col. 25, lines 35-36: In one embodiment, the second set of the multiple sidelink feedback transmission may mean a reference signal. Examiner interprets a reference signal to be equivalent to a predefined bit stream.).
Re. Claim 7, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Li further teaches wherein a first resource block of the second frequency domain resource is an N1th resource block in the first channel (Li, Col. 31, lines 32-35: The sidelink feedback transmission may be interleaved or distributed in the separate PRBs within (available feedback resources associated with) the sub-channels associated with the sidelink data transmission; Col. 32, lines 40-43: The interleaved or distributed frequency resource units of the sidelink feedback transmission may be in units of PRBs or in units of REs (resource elements); And Col. 32, 46-49: The frequency resources of the sidelink feedback transmission may start from the lowest index PRB within (available feedback resources associated with) the sub-channels/PRBs comprised in the sidelink data transmission.),
wherein a last resource block of the second frequency domain resource is an N2th resource block in the first channel wherein N1 and N2 are positive integers (Li, Col. 33, lines 39-46: PSSCH1 comprises two sub-channels, and the associated PSFCH1 comprises 4 PRBs. PSSCH2 comprises one sub-channel, and the associated PSFCH2 comprises 2 PRBs. The frequency resource difference between the two adjacent frequency resources of PSFCH1 is 2 PRBs; and the frequency resource difference between the two adjacent frequency resources of PSFCH2 is 2 PRBs.), and
wherein values of N1 and N2 are predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured (Li, Col. 31, lines 35-38: The interleaved or distributed pattern for the sidelink feedback transmission may be indicated via the scheduling information or may be (pre-)configured or may be specified.).
Re. Claim 8, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Li further teaches wherein the first frequency domain resource is determined based on an index (Li, Col. 34, lines 29-32: In one embodiment, each data sub-channel may be associated with a feedback sub-channel. A data sub-channel and an associated feedback sub-channel may be within the same sub-channel index.) and/or
a quantity of interlaced resources corresponding to the time-frequency resource carrying the first data (Li, Col. 30, line 64 – Col. 31, line 3: The frequency resources of the sidelink feedback transmission may be interleaved or distributed within (available feedback resources associated with) the frequency resources of the associated sidelink data transmission. The interleaved or distributed pattern and/or location may be derived or determined based on the frequency resource size of the sidelink data transmission.) and
identifier information corresponding to the first data (Li, Col. 34, lines 32-34: For instance, a data sub-channel with index 3 is associated with a feedback sub-channel with index 3.).
Re. Claim 9, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Li further teaches wherein the transmitting, by the first terminal apparatus, the first feedback information on the first frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit comprises:
transmitting, by the first terminal apparatus, the first feedback information on the first frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit based on a first code domain resource (Li, Col. 28, lines 21-30: If [codeblock group] CBG-based HARQ feedback is configured, supported, or enabled, the receiver device may generate one number of associated HARQ bits for the transport block. Each bit of the number of associated HARQ bits may be associated with one CBG group of the transport block, wherein the transport block comprises multiple CBs. The number may be configured or indicated via the scheduling information. The receiver device may deliver the number of associated HARQ bits via multiple PSFCH transmissions.),
wherein the first frequency domain resource is determined based on an index (Li, Col. 34, lines 29-32: In one embodiment, each data sub-channel may be associated with a feedback sub-channel. A data sub-channel and an associated feedback sub-channel may be within the same sub-channel index.) and/or
a quantity of interlaced resources corresponding to the time-frequency resource carrying the first data (Li, Col. 30, line 64 – Col. 31, line 3: The frequency resources of the sidelink feedback transmission may be interleaved or distributed within (available feedback resources associated with) the frequency resources of the associated sidelink data transmission. The interleaved or distributed pattern and/or location may be derived or determined based on the frequency resource size of the sidelink data transmission.) and
identifier information corresponding to the first data (Li, Col. 34, lines 32-34: For instance, a data sub-channel with index 3 is associated with a feedback sub-channel with index 3.).
Re. Claim 10, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Li further teaches wherein the determining, by the first terminal apparatus, the feedback time unit corresponding to the first data in the channel occupancy time comprises:
determining, by the first terminal apparatus, the feedback time unit from a time unit set based on the time-frequency resource carrying the first data (Li, Col. 29, lines 22-26: The resource size, position, or pattern of the sidelink feedback transmission in frequency domain may be derived or determined based on the resource size of the sidelink data transmission in frequency domain.),
wherein the time unit set comprises at least one time unit, and a time unit in the at least one time unit comprises a feedback resource (Li, Col. 35, lines 38-39: Moreover, within a TTI, there may be multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission. And Col. 37, lines 52-56: In one embodiment, the TTI may mean a time interval for the sidelink resource pool. The TTI may mean a transmission time interval for a sidelink (data) transmission. A TTI may be a slot (for sidelink). A TTI may be a subframe (for sidelink).).
Re. Claim 11, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 10.
Li further teaches wherein a time domain gap between a start location of the first time unit in the time unit set and a start location of the channel occupancy time is X1 time units (Li, Col. 34, lines 8-11: In one embodiment, there may be a time gap between the frequency region of sidelink feedback transmission and the frequency region of associated sidelink data transmission.),
wherein a time domain gap between every two adjacent time units in the time unit set is M1 time units (Li, Col. 34, line 12: The time gap may be in units of TTIs. And Col. 37, lines 52-57: In one embodiment, the TTI may mean a time interval for the sidelink resource pool. The TTI may mean a transmission time interval for a sidelink (data) transmission. A TTI may be a slot (for sidelink). A TTI may be a subframe (for sidelink). A TTI may comprise multiple symbols, e.g. 12 or 14 symbols.),
wherein X1 and M1 are predefined, indicated by the network device, indicated by the second terminal apparatus, or preconfigured (Li, Col. 34, lines 12-14: The time gap may be fixed, (pre-)configured, or specified. The time gap may be fixed or (pre-)configured per sidelink resource pool.), and
wherein X1 is a positive integer greater than or equal to 0, and M1 is a positive integer greater than or equal to 0 (Li, Col. 37, lines 14-16: The time gap between the sidelink feedback transmission and the associated sidelink data transmission may be zero. [Since the time gap may be in units of TTIs, it would necessarily be an integer number of TTIs.]).
Re. Claim 12, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 10.
Li further teaches determining, by the first terminal apparatus based on received first indication information (Li, Col. 29, lines 19-21: The general concept of method B is that when a receiver device receives/detects a sidelink data transmission and/or sidelink control transmission, the receiver device may perform a sidelink feedback transmission),
the time unit set from a time unit comprised in the channel occupancy time (Li, Col. 29, lines 47-49: In one embodiment, the sidelink control transmission may comprise or may deliver scheduling information for the sidelink data transmission. And Col. 30, lines 47-48: The location of the sidelink feedback transmission may be indicated via the scheduling information.),
wherein the first indication information is received from the network device (Li, Col. 30, lines 48-53: In one embodiment, the location of the sidelink feedback transmission may be fixed, (pre-)configured or specified. The starting frequency resource of the sidelink feedback transmission may be fixed, (pre-)configured or specified.) or the second terminal apparatus.
Re. Claim 13. a communication method (Li, Col. 1, lines 16-19: This disclosure generally relates to wireless communication networks, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus of handling device-to-device feedback transmission in a wireless communication system.), comprising:
by a second terminal apparatus, accessing a first channel, and transmitting first data to a first terminal apparatus (Li, Col. 1, lines 54-57: In one embodiment, the method includes the first device receiving a sidelink data transmission from a second device within the frequency region of sidelink data transmission in a first TTI.); and
receiving, by the second terminal apparatus from the first terminal apparatus, first feedback information on a first frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit (Li, Col. 1, line 66 – Col. 2, line 2: In addition, the method includes the first device performing a sidelink feedback transmission for delivering the feedback information to the second device on the sidelink feedback resource.),
wherein the first feedback information is an acknowledgment or a negative acknowledgment for the first data (Li, Col. 14, lines 30-34: In unicast, the receiver UE can feedback multiple ACK/NACK bits in the corresponding PSFCH resource for one PSSCH transmission and each bit can indicate the ACK/NACK for each CBG, similarly to the CBG-based HARQ codebook design in NR.), and
the first frequency domain resource is determined based on a time-frequency resource carrying the first data (Li, Col. 22, lines 33-35: In one embodiment, the sidelink control transmission may comprise or may deliver scheduling information for the sidelink data transmission. And Col. 22, lines 50-52: In one embodiment, the scheduling information may indicate the frequency resources for the multiple sidelink feedback transmissions.).
Yet, Li does not explicitly teach determining, by the second terminal apparatus, a channel occupancy time, wherein the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel or a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel; transmitting, by the second terminal apparatus, indication information of the channel occupancy time to the first terminal apparatus; determining, by the second terminal apparatus, a feedback time unit in the channel occupancy time, wherein the feedback time unit corresponds to the first data.
However, in the related art, Lei teaches determining, by the second terminal apparatus, a channel occupancy time (Lei, 0026-0025: In particular, UE 101 may perform a channel access procedure (i.e., LBT Cat. 4) for initiating a channel occupancy for sidelink transmission. After successfully performing the channel access procedure, UE 101 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) 1010 to UE 102 in each slot (e.g., slot S, slot S+l, slot S+2 ...) within the channel occupancy. In some embodiments, SCI 1010 may include an indicator 1010A indicating a remaining duration of the channel occupancy.),
wherein the channel occupancy time is a maximum time in which the second terminal apparatus is allowed to occupy the first channel (Lei, Figs. 1-2, 0023: When UE 101 successfully performs channel access Type 1 for unicast communication with UE 102, UE 101 may occupy the channel with a duration (e.g., maximum to 2 ms, 4 ms, 6 ms or 10 ms). And 0027-0028: Accordingly, based on SCI 1010 and indicator 1010A included in SCI 1010, UE 101 may transmit sidelink data 1012 to UE 102 without exceeding the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. … On the other hand, based on SCI 1010 and indicator 1010A included in SCI 1010, UE 102 may receive sidelink data 1012 from UE 101 without exceeding the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]) or
a time in which the second terminal apparatus actually occupies the first channel (Lei, Fig. 1, 0029: In some embodiments, UE 101 may reserve resource of PSFCH transmission for UE 102 to transmit sidelink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to UE 101 during the channel occupancy. … In these embodiments, UE 102 may perform channel access Type 2 (i.e., LBT Cat. 2) and transmit PSFCH(s) to UE 101 within the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving, feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).])
transmitting, by the second terminal apparatus, indication information of the channel occupancy time to the first terminal apparatus (Lei, 0027: In some embodiments, SCI 1010 may include an indicator 1010A indicating a remaining duration of the channel occupancy. After receiving SCI 1010, UE 102 may be informed of the remaining duration of the channel occupancy according to the indicator 1010A. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]);
determining, by the second terminal apparatus, a feedback time unit in a channel occupancy time, wherein the feedback time unit corresponds to the first data (Lei, 0029: In some embodiments, UE 101 may reserve resource of PSFCH transmission for UE 102 to transmit sidelink Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request Acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) feedback to UE 101 during the channel occupancy. … In these embodiments, UE 102 may perform channel access Type 2 (i.e., LBT Cat. 2) and transmit PSFCH(s) to UE 101 within the remaining duration of the channel occupancy. [UE 102 corresponds to the first terminal (data receiving/feedback transmitting terminal) and UE 101 corresponds to the second terminal (data transmitting/feedback receiving terminal).]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method and apparatus of handing device-to-device feedback transmission in a wireless communication system of Li with the method and apparatus for sidelink burst transmission of Lei. The resulting invention would avoid missing any transmission of sidelink data (Lei, 0025).
Claims 4 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Lei as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Sun et al. (US 2021/0091901), Sun hereinafter.
Re. Claim 4, Li in view of Lei teaches claims 1.
Neither Li nor Lei explicitly teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource comprises two discontinuous resource blocks, a frequency domain gap between the two discontinuous resource blocks is Offset resource blocks; and wherein a bandwidth corresponding to (Offset + 2) resource blocks is greater than or equal to a product of a bandwidth of the first channel and a first coefficient, and the first coefficient is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 1.
However, in the related art, Sun teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource comprises two discontinuous resource blocks (Sun, Fig. 6, 0084: A group of M localized RBs 610 forms a cluster 604. As shown, the frequency interlaces 608I(0) to 608I(M-1) form K clusters 604C(0) to 604C(K-1).),
a frequency domain gap between the two discontinuous resource blocks is Offset resource blocks (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: The frequency interlaces are shown as 608I(0) to 608I(M-1), where M is a positive integer. Each frequency interlace 608I(i) may include K plurality of RBs 610 evenly spaced over the frequency band 602, where K is a positive integer and i may vary between 0 to M-1.); and
wherein a bandwidth corresponding to (Offset + 2) resource blocks is greater than or equal to a product of a bandwidth of the first channel and a first coefficient (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: In other words, the RBs 610 in a particular frequency interlace 608I(i) are spaced apart from each other by at least one other RB 610.), and
the first coefficient is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 1 (Sun, Fig. 6, 0084: Each RB 610 may span about twelve contiguous subcarriers 612 in frequency and a time period 614. The subcarriers 612 are indexed from 0 to 11. [Since the resource blocks are evenly spaced over the frequency band, the bandwidth of each resource block is by necessity equal to a product of the channel bandwidth and a coefficient between 0 and 1.]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Li as modified by the teaching of Lei with the waveform design for sidelink in new radio-unlicensed (NR-U) of Sun. The resulting combination would provide an extension to use unlicensed spectrum while allowing the sidelink transmissions to meet bandwidth occupancy requirements for shared radio frequency bands (Sun, 0038).
Re. Claim 6, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 1.
Neither Li nor Lei explicitly teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource is an mth interlaced resource in the first channel, and the mth interlaced resource comprises at least two resource blocks interlaced in frequency domain; and wherein m is an integer, m is greater than or equal to 1 and is less than or equal to a total quantity of interlaced resources comprised in the first channel, and a value of m is predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured.
However, in the related art, Sun teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource is an mth interlaced resource in the first channel, and the mth interlaced resource comprises at least two resource blocks interlaced in frequency domain (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: The frequency interlaces are shown as 608I(0) to 608I(M-1), where M is a positive integer.); and
wherein m is an integer, m is greater than or equal to 1 and is less than or equal to a total quantity of interlaced resources comprised in the first channel (Sun, 0083: Each frequency interlace 608I(i) may include K plurality of RBs 610 evenly spaced over the frequency band 602, where K is a positive integer and i may vary between 0 to M-1.), and
a value of m is predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: In some other examples, the BS may assign multiple frequency interlaces 608 (e.g., frequency interlaces 608I(0) and 608I(1)) for sidelink communications between a pair of UEs.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Li as modified by the teaching of Lei with the waveform design for sidelink in new radio-unlicensed (NR-U) of Sun. The resulting combination would provide an extension to use unlicensed spectrum while allowing the sidelink transmissions to meet bandwidth occupancy requirements for shared radio frequency bands (Sun, 0038).
Claims 14, 16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Lei as applied to claim 13 above, and further in view of Moon et al. (US 2022/0255680), Moon hereinafter.
Re. Claim 14, Li in view of Lei teaches claim 13.
Li further teaches wherein the second feedback information is carried in a second frequency domain resource in the feedback time unit (Li, Col. 22, lines 21-24: The general concept of method A is that when a receiver device receives or detects a sidelink data transmission and/or sidelink control transmission, the receiver device may perform multiple sidelink feedback transmissions. And Col. 22, lines 46-47: The multiple sidelink feedback transmissions may be in separate frequency resources.),
the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource belong to the first channel (Li, Col. 22, lines 35-37: For instance, the scheduling information may indicate which sub-channels are comprised in the sidelink data transmission. [Examiner interprets the indication of which sub-channels to be equivalent to the frequency resources being in the same channel.]), and
the first frequency domain resource and the second frequency domain resource do not overlap (Li, Col. 1, lines 43-54: A method and apparatus are disclosed from the perspective of a first device, wherein the first device is configured with a sidelink resource pool comprising a frequency region of sidelink data transmission and multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission, wherein the multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission in one TTI (Transmission Time Interval) are separately associated with the one frequency region of sidelink data transmission in multiple TTIs, and wherein the multiple frequency regions of sidelink feedback transmission in the one TTI are non-overlapped with each other in frequency domain and fully overlapped in time domain.).
Neither Li nor Lei explicitly teaches receiving and discarding, by the second terminal apparatus, second feedback information.
However, in the related art, Moon teaches receiving and discarding, by the second terminal apparatus, second feedback information (Moon, 0152: The source terminal may drop the invalid retransmission resource and may not perform PSSCH transmission in the corresponding resource…. Alternatively, the target terminal may transmit HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the invalid retransmission resource to the source terminal even though the PSSCH reception is omitted or dropped. [Examiner notes that the source terminal has been interpreted as equivalent to the second terminal apparatus. Examiner further interprets that the transmitting of HARQ-ACK information corresponding to the invalid retransmission resource by the target terminal when the source terminal may drop the invalid retransmission resource and not perform PSSCH transmission is equivalent in effect to receiving and discarding the second feedback information.]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Li as modified by the teaching of Lei with the method and apparatus for sidelink communication of Moon. The resulting combination would provide for efficient transmission and reception between terminals in a sidelink communication system (Moon, 0026).
Re. Claim 16, Li in view of Lei, further in view of Moon teaches claim 14.
Li further teaches wherein the second feedback information is replication information of the first feedback information (Li, Col. 24, lines 3-6: The multiple sidelink feedback transmissions may comprise or may deliver the same HARQ feedback for the associated sidelink data transmission and/or sidelink control transmission.), or
the second feedback information is a predefined bit stream (Li, Col. 25, lines 35-36: In one embodiment, the second set of the multiple sidelink feedback transmission may mean a reference signal. Examiner interprets a reference signal to be equivalent to a predefined bit stream.).
Re. Claim 18, Li in view of Lei, further in view of Moon teaches claim 14.
Li further teaches wherein a first resource block of the second frequency domain resource is an N1th resource block in the first channel (Li, Col. 31, lines 32-35: The sidelink feedback transmission may be interleaved or distributed in the separate PRBs within (available feedback resources associated with) the sub-channels associated with the sidelink data transmission; Col. 32, lines 40-43: The interleaved or distributed frequency resource units of the sidelink feedback transmission may be in units of PRBs or in units of REs (resource elements); And Col. 32, 46-49: The frequency resources of the sidelink feedback transmission may start from the lowest index PRB within (available feedback resources associated with) the sub-channels/PRBs comprised in the sidelink data transmission.),
wherein a last resource block of the second frequency domain resource is an N2th resource block in the first channel wherein N1 and N2 are positive integers (Li, Col. 33, lines 39-46: PSSCH1 comprises two sub-channels, and the associated PSFCH1 comprises 4 PRBs. PSSCH2 comprises one sub-channel, and the associated PSFCH2 comprises 2 PRBs. The frequency resource difference between the two adjacent frequency resources of PSFCH1 is 2 PRBs; and the frequency resource difference between the two adjacent frequency resources of PSFCH2 is 2 PRBs.), and
wherein values of N1 and N2 are predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured (Li, Col. 31, lines 35-38: The interleaved or distributed pattern for the sidelink feedback transmission may be indicated via the scheduling information or may be (pre-)configured or may be specified.).
Claims 15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Lei, further in view of Moon as applied to claims 13-14 above, and further in view of Sun.
Re. Claims 15, Li in view of Lei, further in view of Moon teaches claim 14.
Yet none of Li, Lei, or Moon explicitly teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource comprises two discontinuous resource blocks, a frequency domain gap between the two discontinuous resource blocks is Offset resource blocks; and wherein a bandwidth corresponding to (Offset + 2) resource blocks is greater than or equal to a product of a bandwidth of the first channel and a first coefficient, and the first coefficient is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 1.
However, in the related art, Sun teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource comprises two discontinuous resource blocks (Sun, Fig. 6, 0084: A group of M localized RBs 610 forms a cluster 604. As shown, the frequency interlaces 608I(0) to 608I(M-1) form K clusters 604C(0) to 604C(K-1).),
a frequency domain gap between the two discontinuous resource blocks is Offset resource blocks (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: The frequency interlaces are shown as 608I(0) to 608I(M-1), where M is a positive integer. Each frequency interlace 608I(i) may include K plurality of RBs 610 evenly spaced over the frequency band 602, where K is a positive integer and i may vary between 0 to M-1.); and
wherein a bandwidth corresponding to (Offset + 2) resource blocks is greater than or equal to a product of a bandwidth of the first channel and a first coefficient (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: In other words, the RBs 610 in a particular frequency interlace 608I(i) are spaced apart from each other by at least one other RB 610.), and
the first coefficient is greater than 0 and less than or equal to 1 (Sun, Fig. 6, 0084: Each RB 610 may span about twelve contiguous subcarriers 612 in frequency and a time period 614. The subcarriers 612 are indexed from 0 to 11. [Examiner notes since the resource blocks are evenly spaced over the frequency band, the bandwidth of each resource block is by necessity equal to a product of the channel bandwidth and a coefficient between 0 and 1.]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Li as modified by the teaching of Lei and Moon with the waveform design for sidelink in new radio-unlicensed (NR-U) of Sun. The resulting combination would provide an extension to use unlicensed spectrum while allowing the sidelink transmissions to meet bandwidth occupancy requirements for shared radio frequency bands (Sun, 0038).
Re. Claim 17, Li in view of Lei, further in view of Moon teaches claim 14.
Yet, none of Li, Lei, or Moon explicitly teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource is an mth interlaced resource in the first channel, and the mth interlaced resource comprises at least two resource blocks interlaced in frequency domain; and wherein m is an integer, m is greater than or equal to 1 and is less than or equal to a total quantity of interlaced resources comprised in the first channel, and a value of m is predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured.
However, in the related art, Sun teaches wherein the second frequency domain resource is an mth interlaced resource in the first channel, and the mth interlaced resource comprises at least two resource blocks interlaced in frequency domain (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: The frequency interlaces are shown as 608I(0) to 608I(M-1), where M is a positive integer.); and
wherein m is an integer, m is greater than or equal to 1 and is less than or equal to a total quantity of interlaced resources comprised in the first channel (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: Each frequency interlace 608I(i) may include K plurality of RBs 610 evenly spaced over the frequency band 602, where K is a positive integer and i may vary between 0 to M-1.), and
a value of m is predefined, indicated by a network device, or preconfigured (Sun, Fig. 6, 0083: In some other examples, the BS may assign multiple frequency interlaces 608 (e.g., frequency interlaces 608I(0) and 608I(1)) for sidelink communications between a pair of UEs.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Li as modified by the teaching of Lei and Moon with the waveform design for sidelink in new radio-unlicensed (NR-U) of Sun. The resulting combination would provide an extension to use unlicensed spectrum while allowing the sidelink transmissions to meet bandwidth occupancy requirements for shared radio frequency bands (Sun, 0038).
Conclusion
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/C.H.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2417
/REBECCA E SONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2417