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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/03/26 has been entered.
Response to Arguments/Amendments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/03/26 have been fully considered but they are moot due to the fact that all independent claims have been amended to which new ground rejections have been made as shown below.
To speed up prosecution on merit, Examiner will address Applicant’s main arguments below.
For claim 20, Applicant argues: the claim “as amended, require transmitting an indication to another terminal that the transmitting terminal ‘will be active in receiving during a time period outside the at least one on-duration.’ This is a specific, affirmative indication communicated to other terminals regarding the
transmitting terminal's future receiving activity outside of its configured DRX on-duration. The claimed
indication is proactive-it is sent by the receiving UE (Rx UE) to the transmitting UE (Tx UE) before
transmission occurs, enabling the Tx UE to know in advance that the Rx UE can receive transmissions
outside the Rx UE's configured ON-duration.” and “The Examiner cites D1's Proposal 7 as allegedly teaching the claimed indication. However, D1 describes only a feedback-based mechanism that operates after transmission-not a proactive indication sent before transmission”.
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees. D1 teaches using sensing and Re-evaluation to make the consistent again when Tx UE and Rx UE are out of sync in resources being used (FIGs. 1-2, 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 3rd para from the bottom “… e.g., P2V, although a Tx UE (i.e., a pedestrian UE) is configured with a DRX for its reception, it can still perform sensing outside of its DRX active time in case it has an urgent packet … to transmit. In this case, once a UE receives a packet for transmission, it can perform sensing for the purpose of resource selection or reevaluation.” and Proposal 7. Note that FIG. 8 in view of the above cited text shows “Extended ON duration of UE A due to UE B’s reservations outside of its active time with sensing and resource selection to make resource for UE A is consistent with UE B). Sensing discloses an indication sent by Rx UE to Tx UE before transmission occurs, enabling the Tx UE to know in advance that the Rx UE can receive transmissions outside the Rx UE's configured ON-duration as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Applicant made the same argument to other independent claims 28 and 35, to which Examiner’s response is the same as to that of claim 20.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 20-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 (3GPP DRAFT; R1-2101485, NPL dated 7/10/24, 11 pages).
For claim 20, D1 discloses a terminal (Section 4, 1st para, “Tx UE”), comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor (the processor and memory of the UE), to cause the terminal to:
apply a first discontinuous reception configuration for communications between the terminal and at least one other terminal (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 1st para, “A sidelink Tx UE should be aware of the DRX configuration of a sidelink Rx UE to be able to communicate with it. …”), the first discontinuous reception configuration comprising at least one on-duration (FIG. 8 shows different DRX active time durations, such as B & D);
determine whether to indicate the terminal will be active in receiving during a time period outside the at least one on-duration (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as shaded area of the bottom Figure of FIG. 8 in view of Section 4, last 3 paras, page 9, “… In some other scenarios, e.g., P2V, although a Tx UE (i.e., a pedestrian UE) is configured with a DRX for its reception, it can still perform sensing outside of its DRX active time …”), and
when it is determined to indicate the terminal will be active in receiving during a time period outside the at least one on-duration, transmit at least one indication to this effect to one or more of the at least one other terminal indicating that the terminal will be active in receiving during a time period outside the at least one on-duration (FIGs. 1-2, 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 3rd para from the bottom “…, the Tx UE only needs to perform sensing during the Rx UE’s active time; … e.g., P2V, although a Tx UE (i.e., a pedestrian UE) is configured with a DRX for its reception, it can still perform sensing outside of its DRX active time in case it has an urgent packet … to transmit. In this case, once a UE receives a packet for transmission, it can perform sensing for the purpose of resource selection or reevaluation.” and the last para “Proposal 7: It should be left to the UE’s implementation to decide whether sensing is limited to its DRX active time interval or it can also be performed outside of the active time in case it has an urgent packet …”; note that FIG. 8 in view of the above cited text shows “Extended ON duration of UE A due to UE B’s reservations outside of its active time with sensing and resource selection to make resource for UE A is consistent with UE B).
For claim 28, D1 discloses a terminal (Section 4, 1st para, “Rx UE”), is configured with
a first discontinuous reception to be applied by at least one other terminal for communications between the terminal and the at least one other terminal (Section 4, 1st para, “Tx UE”), the first discontinuous reception configuration comprising at least one on-duration (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 1st para, “A sidelink Tx UE should be aware of the DRX configuration of a sidelink Rx UE to be able to communicate with it. If, in addition, the sidelink Tx UE is itself configured with DRX for its reception, the two UEs should have an aligned DRX configuration.”), and wherein the terminal comprises at least one processor, and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor (the processor and memory of the UE), to cause the terminal to:
receive from one or more of the at least one other terminal an indication that said at least one other terminal will be active in receiving during a time period outside the at least one on-duration (FIGs. 1-2, 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 3rd para from the bottom “…, the Tx UE only needs to perform sensing during the Rx UE’s active time; …”); and
determine, based on the indication, whether to make a transmission to the one or more of the at least one other terminal before next configured discontinuous reception on-duration of the first discontinuous reception (FIGs. 1-2, 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 3rd para from the bottom “… e.g., P2V, although a Tx UE (i.e., a pedestrian UE) is configured with a DRX for its reception, it can still perform sensing outside of its DRX active time in case it has an urgent packet … to transmit. In this case, once a UE receives a packet for transmission, it can perform sensing for the purpose of resource selection or reevaluation.”;
note that FIG. 8 in view of the above cited text shows “Extended ON duration of UE A due to UE B’s reservations outside of its active time with sensing and resource selection to make resource for UE A is consistent with UE B).
Claim 35 is rejected because it is a claim of a method that is performed by the apparatus of claim 20 and has the same subject matter.
As to claims 21 and 29, D1 discloses claims 20 and 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the indication comprises at least one further information element indicating at least one a minimum time that the terminal will be active in receiving; an indication of a radio channel quality; and a resource indication (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as page 8, the last para extending to p9; note that FIG. 8 shows a minimum receiving time period for UE A without Extended On duration of UE A in the bottom FIG of FIG. 8).
As to claim 22, D1 discloses claim 21, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one further information element is provided implicitly in the indication, wherein the terminal is further caused to determine an indication configuration from a plurality of indication configurations, wherein the determined indication configuration is used for transmitting the indication, and wherein each indication configuration indicates corresponding information different from another configuration indication (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as the para under FIG. 8, page 8, “The top figure shows the initial configuration of DRX patterns on a resource pool for UE A, which is communicating with a UE B, and for UE C, which is communicating with a UE D. As shown, the DRX configurations are disjoint. However, if UEA is configured with a non-zero inactivity timer, and if UE B decides to reserve resources outside of the UEA’s active time, the DRX pattern of UE A and C partially collide. Now, if UE D has the same DRX configuration as that of UE C, it is unaware of the reservations made outside of its own DRX active time. As a result, it may choose the same resources as chosen by UE B during the partially overlapping region (the shaded area.)”; note that the determined DRX configuration from a plurality of DRX configurations is used for transmitting control information and data, including updated DRX configurations).
As to claim 23, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein the terminal is configured with a second discontinuous reception configuration to be applied by the at least one other terminal for communications between the terminal and the at least one other terminal, wherein the indication is transmitted during at least one of a first time or frequency resource configured for the one or more of the at least one other terminal to receive a wake up signal as part of said second discontinuous reception configuration (FIG. 1 and the associated text, such as p2, “In this section, we present two methods that trade off some power consumption and perform sensing after receiving the resource selection trigger to improve the performance without performing full sensing. The first uses re-evaluation after random resource selection and the second performs sensing after a resource selection trigger is received and then selects resources.”; FIG. 1 shows “Re-evaluation” suggests “a second discontinuous reception configuration”).
As to claim 24, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein the terminal is configured with a second discontinuous reception configuration to be applied by the at least one other terminal for communications between the terminal and the at least one other terminal, wherein the indication is transmitted during at least one of a second time or frequency resource that is independent of at least one of a first time or frequency resource configured for the one or more of the at least one other terminal to receive a wake up signal as part of said second discontinuous reception configuration (FIG. 1 and the associated text, such as p2, “In this section, we present two methods that trade off some power consumption and perform sensing after receiving the resource selection trigger to improve the performance without performing full sensing. The first uses re-evaluation after random resource selection and the second performs sensing after a resource selection trigger is received and then selects resources.”; FIG. 1 shows “Re-evaluation” suggests “a second discontinuous reception configuration”).
As to claim 25, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein said determining whether to indicate the terminal will be active in receiving outside the on-duration to the one or more of the at least one other terminal comprises determining that an active time of the terminal will be extended (FIG. 8 and the associated text).
As to claim 26, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein said determining whether to indicate the terminal is active in receiving outside the on-duration to one or more of the at least one other terminal comprises determining at least one of: a time difference between transmission of the indication and the next configured discontinuous reception on-duration; a time difference between transmission of the indication and an projected end of an active time of said receiving; and whether an upper layer of the terminal has predicted that the one or more of the at least one other terminal has information to transmit to the terminal (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text).
As to claim 27, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal to: receive a communication from the at least one other terminal outside of the at least one on-duration (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text, such as p7, the para under FIG. 6, “… the activity durations are aligned within each pair of UEs; hence, UE1 and UE2 can transmit to/receive from each other. Similarly, UE3 and UE4 can transmit to/receive from each other” and FIG. 8).
As to claim 29, D1 discloses claim 20, D1 further discloses: wherein the indication comprises at least one further information element indicating at least one of: a minimum time that the one or more of the at least one other terminal will be active in receiving; an indication of a radio channel quality/condition; and a resource indication (FIGs. 1-2, 8 and associated text, such as Section 4, 3rd para from the bottom “…, the Tx UE only needs to perform sensing during the Rx UE’s active time; … e.g., P2V, although a Tx UE (i.e., a pedestrian UE) is configured with a DRX for its reception, it can still perform sensing outside of its DRX active time in case it has an urgent packet … to transmit. In this case, once a UE receives a packet for transmission, it can perform sensing for the purpose of resource selection or reevaluation.” and the last para “Proposal 7: It should be left to the UE’s implementation to decide whether sensing is limited to its DRX active time interval or it can also be performed outside of the active time in case it has an urgent packet …”; note “sensing” provides an indication of a radio channel quality/condition, “resource selection or reevaluation” suggests a resource indication; and the bottom figure of FIG. 8 discloses a minimum time).
As to claim 30, D1 discloses claim 29, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one further information element is provided implicitly in the indication (FIG. 8 and associated text, such as the para under FIG. 8, page 8, “The top figure shows the initial configuration of DRX patterns on a resource pool for UE A, which is communicating with a UE B, and for UE C, which is communicating with a UE D. As shown, the DRX configurations are disjoint. However, if UEA is configured with a non-zero inactivity timer, and if UE B decides to reserve resources outside of the UEA’s active time, the DRX pattern of UE A and C partially collide. Now, if UE D has the same DRX configuration as that of UE C, it is unaware of the reservations made outside of its own DRX active time. As a result, it may choose the same resources as chosen by UE B during the partially overlapping region (the shaded area.)”; note that the determined DRX configuration from a plurality of DRX configurations is used for transmitting control information and data).
As to claim 31, D1 discloses claim 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal to: transmit data to the one or more of the at least one other terminal by using the further information (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text, such as p7, the para under FIG. 6, “… the activity durations are aligned within each pair of UEs; hence, UE1 and UE2 can transmit to/receive from each other. Similarly, UE3 and UE4 can transmit to/receive from each other”).
As to claim 32, D1 discloses claim 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal to:
apply a second discontinuous reception configuration for communications between the terminal and the at least one other terminal, wherein the indication is received during at least one of a first time or frequency resource configured for the terminal to receive a wake up signal as part of said second discontinuous reception configuration (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text, such as p2, “In this section, we present two methods that trade off some power consumption and perform sensing after receiving the resource selection trigger to improve the performance without performing full sensing. The first uses re-evaluation after random resource selection and the second performs sensing after a resource selection trigger is received and then selects resources.”; FIG. 1 shows “Re-evaluation” suggests “a second discontinuous reception configuration”).
As to claim 33, D1 discloses claim 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal to:
apply a second discontinuous reception configuration for communications between the terminal and the at least one other terminal, wherein the indication is received during at least one of a second time or frequency resource that is independent of at least one of a first time or frequency resource configured for the terminal to receive a wake up signal as part of said second discontinuous reception configuration (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text, such as FIG. 1 shows “Re-evaluation” suggests “a second discontinuous reception configuration”).
As to claim 34, D1 discloses claim 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the terminal to:
determine to transmit data to the one or more of the at least one other terminal during an on-duration of the first discontinuous reception configuration (FIGs. 1-2 and 4-8 and the associated text, such as p7, the para under FIG. 6, “… the activity durations are aligned within each pair of UEs; hence, UE1 and UE2 can transmit to/receive from each other. Similarly, UE3 and UE4 can transmit to/receive from each other”).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANYE WU whose telephone number is (571)270-1665. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 8am-6pm.
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/JIANYE WU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462