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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-5, 9, 11-12, 14-15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) & 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pratas et al (US 11,616,562).
Regarding Claim 1, Pratas teaches a User Equipment (UE) (col. 17, lines 50-56, Fig. 12 may be performed by a UE) comprising: radio frequency (RF) circuitry; and processing circuitry (col. 19-20, Fig. 14(a)), configured to execute instructions stored in a memory to cause the UE to:
receive an inter-UE coordination (IUC) message (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams. At 1205, the method may include exchanging, with the second user equipment, beamformed reference signals for identifying corresponding beams of the first user equipment and second user equipment. Further, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication)
comprising at least one of: directional sensing results from a receiving UE or beam alignment sidelink (SL) channel transmission information (col. 6, lines 51-61, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s). Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL Tx UE may select resource(s) from the available SL resources, accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it may decode the sidelink control information (SCI), col. 7, lines 40-50, when UE B receives the inter-UE coordination from UE A, there may be several options for UE B to take into account in the resource (re)-selection for its own transmission. In particular, for scheme 1, a first option may be where UE B's resource(s) to be used for its transmission resource (re)-selection is based on both UE B's sensing result (if available), and the received coordination information); and
transmit, via the RF circuitry, a SL communication based on the IUC message (col. 18, lines 1-13, Fig. 12, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication. At 1220, the method may include selecting, based on the at least one of determined preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources, and the received coordination information, at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams. Further, at 1225, the method may include transmitting, to the second user equipment, data in the selected at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams). 11616562
Regarding Claim 2, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further causes the UE to: perform a resource selection procedure to determine SL resources for the SL communication based on the IUC message (col. 18, lines 1-10, Fig. 12, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication. At 1220, the method may include selecting, based on the at least one of determined preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources, and the received coordination information, at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams), wherein the SL communication comprises an autonomous determination of the SL resources as a Mode 2 SL communication for frequency range 2 (FR2) (col. 6, lines 40-62, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s)).
Regarding Claim 3, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the IUC message further comprises information related to a transmission mode of the receiving UE, and wherein the processing circuitry further causes the UE to: determine whether the receiving UE is in a transmission mode or a receiving mode for receiving the SL communication (col. 12, lines 9-26, upon receiving the IUC message, UE B may become aware of the beam pairs to use as well as which resources (from the point of view of UE A) these beam pairs are usable on. For instance, in certain example embodiments, prior to reception of the IUC message from UE A, UE B may also monitor the SL resource pool for other nearby UEs' transmissions with the goal of identifying which resources can potentially be used for its own transmissions. This monitoring may follow the SL mode 2 sensing procedure, where the UE decodes the PSCCH (1.sup.st stage SCI) of all transmissions taking place in the SL resource pool during the sensing period. This may allow UE B to identify future transmissions from other UEs, based on the “Frequency resource assignment” and “Time resource assignment” fields of the 1.sup.st stage SCI of the decoded transmissions from these same UEs).
Regarding Claim 4, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the beam alignment SL channel transmission information of the IUC message comprises any SL resources or slots reserved by one or more other SL transmissions associated with the receiving UE in a transmitter/receiver UE pair (col. 6, lines 51-61, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s). Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL Tx UE may select resource(s) from the available SL resources, accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it may decode the sidelink control information (SCI)).
Regarding Claim 5, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the directional sensing results from the receiving UE comprise any slots that have a reference signal received power (RSRP) above an RSRP threshold for a receiving beam, and the IUC message further includes one or more slot indices where receiving beams are directed to the UE (col. 15, lines 20-30, during the Rx-led procedure, UE2 may inform UE1 about the SL-TS configuration via PC5-RRC or a SL MAC CE, which would include the following information: resource pool, time slot and sub-channel allocation, SL-TS code ID. This SL-TS configuration may request the Tx-UE to report the indices of the best N links (where the link quality may be decided on measurements like RSRP, SNR, etc.). Depending on the SL-TS allocation, the indices may for example refer to the symbol indices within the SL slot of the best N links. In an example embodiment, mapping between the symbol index (i.e., the link index), and the beam index may be known by both UE1 and UE2. In other words, when UE1 reports slot index X, UE2 knows that the slot contains the signal sent from own beam b2).
Regarding Claim 9, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the IUC message is included in at least one of: a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC CE) or a stage 2 sidelink control information (SCI), and wherein the IUC message is received over a reservation period based on one or more resource periodicities (col. 6, lines 51-61, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s). Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL Tx UE may select resource(s) from the available SL resources, accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it may decode the sidelink control information (SCI)).
Regarding Claim 11, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein, in response to the UE being associated with a plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs, the IUC message indicates resources for the SL communication based on an RSRP threshold and traffic priorities or delay budgets of the plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs; and wherein, in response to the plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs being associated with a same priority: a transmitter/receiver UE pair with a higher RSRP among the plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs is prioritized for the resources for the SL communication; or the IUC message indicates a round-robin allocation of the resources for the SL communication among the plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs (col. 13 lines 40-58, establishment of the beam pairs may involve the transmission of the Tx beamformed reference signals, as this may allow the Rx to select the best Rx beamformer to apply to receive a transmission beamformed with a specific Tx beamformer. The beam pairs used in certain example embodiments may be established after the best Tx beamformer is matched to the best Rx beamformer. The identification of a best Tx beamformer, at the transmitter, and the best Rx beamformer, at the receiver, may be based on pairing all different available Tx and Rx beamformers, and then selecting the pairs for which an associated link quality (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ) is maximized. In one example embodiment, assuming three available Tx beamformers at the transmitter, and two available Rx beamformers at the receiver, 3×2 Tx and Rx beamformers may be evaluated in terms of achievable RSRP. The N best combinations of Tx and Rx beamformers may then be selected based on the measured RSRP).
Regarding Claim 12, Pratas teaches a method of a user equipment (UE) (col. 17, lines 50-56, Fig. 12 may be performed by a UE) comprising: receiving an inter-UE coordination (IUC) message (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams. At 1205, the method may include exchanging, with the second user equipment, beamformed reference signals for identifying corresponding beams of the first user equipment and second user equipment. Further, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication)
comprising at least one of: directional sensing results from a receiving UE or beam alignment sidelink (SL) channel transmission information (col. 6, lines 51-61, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s). Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL Tx UE may select resource(s) from the available SL resources, accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it may decode the sidelink control information (SCI), col. 7, lines 40-50, when UE B receives the inter-UE coordination from UE A, there may be several options for UE B to take into account in the resource (re)-selection for its own transmission. In particular, for scheme 1, a first option may be where UE B's resource(s) to be used for its transmission resource (re)-selection is based on both UE B's sensing result (if available), and the received coordination information); and
transmitting a SL communication based on the IUC message (col. 18, lines 1-13, Fig. 12, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication. At 1220, the method may include selecting, based on the at least one of determined preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources, and the received coordination information, at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams. Further, at 1225, the method may include transmitting, to the second user equipment, data in the selected at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams).
Regarding Claim 14, Pratas teaches the method of claim 12, further comprising: coordinating different SL communications among different unicast transmitter/receiver UE pairs associated with the UE by generating a preferred resource/non-preferred resource slot pattern among the different unicast transmitter/receiver UE pairs (col. 15, lines 20-30, during the Rx-led procedure, UE2 may inform UE1 about the SL-TS configuration via PC5-RRC or a SL MAC CE, which would include the following information: resource pool, time slot and sub-channel allocation, SL-TS code ID. This SL-TS configuration may request the Tx-UE to report the indices of the best N links (where the link quality may be decided on measurements like RSRP, SNR, etc.). Depending on the SL-TS allocation, the indices may for example refer to the symbol indices within the SL slot of the best N links. In an example embodiment, mapping between the symbol index (i.e., the link index), and the beam index may be known by both UE1 and UE2. In other words, when UE1 reports slot index X, UE2 knows that the slot contains the signal sent from own beam b2, col. 18, lines 1-10, Fig. 12, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication).
Regarding Claim 15, Pratas teaches the method of claim 12, further comprising: in response to the UE being communicatively coupled with a plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs via conflicting receiver beams, the IUC message indicates resources for a transmitter/receiver UE pair based on a traffic priority, a UE priority, or a round-robin allocation of the resources for the SL communication among the plurality of transmitter/receiver UE pairs (col. 13 lines 40-58, establishment of the beam pairs may involve the transmission of the Tx beamformed reference signals, as this may allow the Rx to select the best Rx beamformer to apply to receive a transmission beamformed with a specific Tx beamformer. The beam pairs used in certain example embodiments may be established after the best Tx beamformer is matched to the best Rx beamformer. The identification of a best Tx beamformer, at the transmitter, and the best Rx beamformer, at the receiver, may be based on pairing all different available Tx and Rx beamformers, and then selecting the pairs for which an associated link quality (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ) is maximized. In one example embodiment, assuming three available Tx beamformers at the transmitter, and two available Rx beamformers at the receiver, 3×2 Tx and Rx beamformers may be evaluated in terms of achievable RSRP. The N best combinations of Tx and Rx beamformers may then be selected based on the measured RSRP).
Regarding Claim 17, Pratas teaches a baseband processor (col. 19-20, Fig. 14(a)) configured to, when executing instructions stored in a memory, perform operations (col. 17, lines 50-56, Fig. 12 may be performed by a UE) comprising: generating an inter-UE coordination (IUC) message (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams. At 1205, the method may include exchanging, with the second user equipment, beamformed reference signals for identifying corresponding beams of the first user equipment and second user equipment. Further, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication)
comprising at least one of: directional sensing results or beam alignment sidelink (SL) channel transmission information for assisting in a resource selection (col. 6, lines 51-61, In mode 2, the SL UEs may perform the resource selection autonomously with the aid of a sensing procedure. More specifically, a SL Tx UE in NR SL mode 2 may first perform a sensing procedure over the configured SL transmission resource pool(s) to obtain the knowledge of the reserved resource(s) by other nearby SL Tx UE(s). Based on the knowledge obtained from sensing, the SL Tx UE may select resource(s) from the available SL resources, accordingly. In order for a SL UE to perform sensing and obtain the necessary information to receive a SL transmission, it may decode the sidelink control information (SCI), col. 7, lines 40-50, when UE B receives the inter-UE coordination from UE A, there may be several options for UE B to take into account in the resource (re)-selection for its own transmission. In particular, for scheme 1, a first option may be where UE B's resource(s) to be used for its transmission resource (re)-selection is based on both UE B's sensing result (if available), and the received coordination information);
providing, to a radio frequency (RF) interface for transmission by RF circuitry, the IUC message (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams); and
receiving a SL communication based on the IUC message (col. 18, lines 1-13, Fig. 12, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication. At 1220, the method may include selecting, based on the at least one of determined preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources, and the received coordination information, at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams. Further, at 1225, the method may include transmitting, to the second user equipment, data in the selected at least two time-frequency-beam resources associated with different beams of the plurality of beams).
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.
Claims 6-8, 10, 13, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pratas et al (US 11,616,562), in view of Medina et al (US 2024/0224368).
Regarding Claim 6, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry further causes the UE to: receive the IUC message further comprising at least one of: a set of preferred resources to assist in a resource selection, or a set of non-preferred resources to assist in the resource selection (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 13, Fig. 12, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication); wherein the IUC message is received in response to a request for IUC coordination information, or without any request for IUC coordination information (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams).
Pratas fails to explicitly teach the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Medina teaches a proactive IUC scheme ([0034], Rel-17 IUC, which may include both a proactive conflict avoidance scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 1), as well as a reactive conflict resolution scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 2), may reduce data-data collisions. However, the introduction of IUC itself gives rise to two further classes of collisions, namely, IUC-data collisions and IUC-IUC collisions).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Regarding Claim 7, Pratas, modified by Medina, teaches UE of claim 6, Medina further teaches wherein the request for IUC coordination information is multiplexed or piggybacked with a SL data transmission, and wherein the IUC message is offset by a number of N slots from the request ([0038], set of dedicated radio resources for IUC scheme 1, according to certain example embodiments. In some example embodiments, a sidelink resource pool may be configured with dedicated resources including, for example, transmission opportunities for transmission of IUC messages (e.g., CR, CM). As illustrated in FIG. 3, such configuration may include an IUC resource size (e.g., m contiguous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols), and an IUC resource periodicity (e.g., n slots). In the example of FIG. 3, m=3 OFDM symbols may be configured for every n=4 slots for IUC transmission. In addition, an OFDM symbol may be used as a guard time following each IUC transmission opportunity, similar to the guard symbol at the end of each slot. Alternatively, IUC resources may be configured as full dedicated slots).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Regarding Claim 8, Pratas, modified by Medina, teaches UE of claim 6, Pratas further teaches wherein the set of preferred resources and the set of non-preferred resources include one or more slot indices associated with receiving beams directed to the UE or a transmitting UE, and are based on at least one of: sensing results from the receiving UE that indicate slots reserved for other SL transmissions or slots with a reference signal received power (RSRP) above an RSRP threshold associated with a receiving beam (col. 15, lines 20-30, during the Rx-led procedure, UE2 may inform UE1 about the SL-TS configuration via PC5-RRC or a SL MAC CE, which would include the following information: resource pool, time slot and sub-channel allocation, SL-TS code ID. This SL-TS configuration may request the Tx-UE to report the indices of the best N links (where the link quality may be decided on measurements like RSRP, SNR, etc.). Depending on the SL-TS allocation, the indices may for example refer to the symbol indices within the SL slot of the best N links. In an example embodiment, mapping between the symbol index (i.e., the link index), and the beam index may be known by both UE1 and UE2. In other words, when UE1 reports slot index X, UE2 knows that the slot contains the signal sent from own beam b2).
Regarding Claim 10, Pratas teaches the UE of claim 1, except the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Medina teaches wherein the processing circuitry further causes the UE to: transmit sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve a resource for the SL communication; and receive, in a reactive IUC scheme, the IUC message further comprising an indication of a resource conflict with the reserved resource for the SL communication, wherein the indication is based on at least one of: reservation information associated with one or more transmitter/receiver UE pairs, receiving beams directed to the one or more transmitter/receiver UE pairs, or reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements of the receiving beams ([0030], In IUC scheme 2, the coordination information sent from UE-A to UE-B may include the presence of an expected/potential and/or detected resource conflict on the resources indicated by UE-B's sidelink control information (SCI). There may also be the possibility of down-selection between the expected/potential conflict and the detected resource conflict, [0037], IUC resource conflicts may be reduced. Furthermore, the size of the indicated reserved resource may be selected based on a measured IUC congestion level (e.g., channel busy ratio, CBR) such that robustness of IUC transmissions may be maintained and IUC latency kept within bounds under high IUC load).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Regarding Claim 13, Pratas teaches the method of claim 12, further comprising: receiving the IUC message comprising at least one of: a set of preferred resources to assist in a resource selection, or a set of non-preferred resources to assist in the resource selection (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 13, Fig. 12, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication); wherein the IUC message is received in response to a request for IUC coordination information, or without any request for IUC coordination information (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams).
Pratas fails to explicitly teach the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Medina teaches a proactive IUC scheme ([0034], Rel-17 IUC, which may include both a proactive conflict avoidance scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 1), as well as a reactive conflict resolution scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 2), may reduce data-data collisions. However, the introduction of IUC itself gives rise to two further classes of collisions, namely, IUC-data collisions and IUC-IUC collisions).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Regarding Claim 18, Pratas teaches the baseband processor of claim 17, the operations further comprising: generating the IUC message comprising at least one of: a set of preferred resources to assist in a resource selection, or a set of non-preferred resources to assist in the resource selection (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 13, Fig. 12, at 1210, the method may include receiving, from the second user equipment, coordination information comprising at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the user equipment for their communication, at 1215, the method may include determining, by the first user equipment, at least one of preferred or non-preferred time-frequency-beam resources of the first user equipment for their communication) ; wherein the IUC is message is generated in response to receiving a request for IUC coordination information, or without receiving the request for IUC coordination information (col. 17, line 57 – col. 18, line 1, Fig. 12, at 1200, transmitting, from a first user equipment to a second user equipment, a coordination request for communication over a plurality of beams).
Pratas fails to explicitly teach the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Medina teaches a proactive IUC scheme ([0034], Rel-17 IUC, which may include both a proactive conflict avoidance scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 1), as well as a reactive conflict resolution scheme (e.g., IUC scheme 2), may reduce data-data collisions. However, the introduction of IUC itself gives rise to two further classes of collisions, namely, IUC-data collisions and IUC-IUC collisions).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Regarding Claim 19, Pratas, as modified by Medina, teaches the baseband processor of claim 18, Pratas further teaches wherein the set of preferred resources include one or more slot indices associated with receiving beams directed to a transmitting UE of the SL communication, and wherein the set of non-preferred resources include slots reserved for other SL transmissions being received by other UEs and slots with a reference signal received power (RSRP) above an RSRP threshold associated with one or more receiving beams directed toward the transmitting UE (col. 15, lines 20-30, during the Rx-led procedure, UE2 may inform UE1 about the SL-TS configuration via PC5-RRC or a SL MAC CE, which would include the following information: resource pool, time slot and sub-channel allocation, SL-TS code ID. This SL-TS configuration may request the Tx-UE to report the indices of the best N links (where the link quality may be decided on measurements like RSRP, SNR, etc.). Depending on the SL-TS allocation, the indices may for example refer to the symbol indices within the SL slot of the best N links. In an example embodiment, mapping between the symbol index (i.e., the link index), and the beam index may be known by both UE1 and UE2. In other words, when UE1 reports slot index X, UE2 knows that the slot contains the signal sent from own beam b2).
Regarding Claim 20, Pratas teaches the baseband processor of claim 17, except the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Medina teaches the operations further comprising: receiving sidelink control information (SCI) to reserve a resource for the SL communication; and generating, in a reactive IUC scheme, the IUC message further comprising an indication of a resource conflict with the reserved resource for the SL communication, wherein the indication is based on at least one of: reservation information associated with one or more transmitter/receiver UE pairs, receiving beams directed to the one or more transmitter/receiver UE pairs, or reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements of the receiving beams ([0030], In IUC scheme 2, the coordination information sent from UE-A to UE-B may include the presence of an expected/potential and/or detected resource conflict on the resources indicated by UE-B's sidelink control information (SCI). There may also be the possibility of down-selection between the expected/potential conflict and the detected resource conflict, [0037], IUC resource conflicts may be reduced. Furthermore, the size of the indicated reserved resource may be selected based on a measured IUC congestion level (e.g., channel busy ratio, CBR) such that robustness of IUC transmissions may be maintained and IUC latency kept within bounds under high IUC load).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the proactive IUC scheme of Medina in the system of Pratas in order to limit the need for retransmissions and avoid detected collisions.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pratas et al (US 11,616,562), in view of Yoshioka et al (US 2025/0380300).
Regarding Claim 16, Pratas teaches the method of claim 12, except the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Yoshioka teaches further comprising: receiving the IUC message on a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) that is mapped through sidelink control information (SCI); and in response to different beams being associated with different SL transmitter/receiver UE pairs, transmitting the PSFCH with the IUC message through the different beams in different slots, wherein an index of PSFCH resources is based on a physical SL sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) transmission slot ([0127], Inter-terminal coordination method 1) A preferred resource set and/or a non-preferred resource set for transmission of the UE-B is transmitted from the UE-A to the UE-B. Hereinafter, the inter-terminal coordination method 1 is also described as the IUC scheme 1 (Inter-UE coordination scheme 1). Inter-terminal coordination method 2) In a resource indicated by SCI that is received from the UE-B, the UE=A transmits, to the UE-B, information indicating: an expectation of a collision with another transmission; and/or a resource in which the collision is detected. The information may be transmitted via PSFCH. Hereinafter, the inter-terminal coordination method 2 is also described as the IUC scheme 2 (Inter-UE coordination scheme 2)).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate exchange of IUC coordination messages over the PFSCH, as taught in Yoshioka, in the system of Pratas, in order to support unicast and groupcast in sidelink.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Saggar et al (US 2024/0313934) teaches the first UE may utilize a first beam for sensing resources (e.g., as part of the resource sensing and identification procedure), and the second UE may utilize a second, different beam for sensing resources (e.g., as part of a respective resource sensing and identification procedure). Based at least in part on using different beams for resource sensing, each UE may identify different available resources for full-duplex (FD) sidelink communication. However, without prior beam coordination between the two UEs, the first beam and the second beam may be sub-optimal for FD sidelink communications (e.g., fails to mitigate self-interference), resulting in degraded sidelink performance. Using an optimal FD beam pair (e.g., a beam pair that mitigates self-interference better than other beam pairs) for resource sensing may lead to degraded performance when the optimal FD beam pair is used to establish half-duplex (HD) communications ([0023]);
Pan et al (US 2024/0172235) discloses In one aspect, the first UE may select a subset of types of resources (e.g., one or more of preferred, non-preferred, and resource conflict) from a type of resources set (e.g., preferred, non-preferred, and resource conflict) based on the received coordination information and/or based on a priority order. Selection of the subset of types of resources may be based at least in part on one or more of a resource collision and/or one or more sensing operations. In some aspects, a PSSCH payload size may be determined based on SCI included in the coordination information and the subset of types of resources may be based at least in part on the PSSCH payload size. ([0011]).
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/MARGARET G WEBB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641