Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 10 and 14 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claim 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, line 15, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 5, lines 3-4, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 8, line 2, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 9, line 2, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 10, line 5, “the first UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 10, lines 7-8, “the first UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 10, line 16, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 14, lines 17-18, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
In claim 18, line 3, “a second UE” should read “the second UE”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-6, 8-12, 14-16, and 18-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20140247802 A1 (hereinafter Wijting), in view of US 20200221467 A1 (hereinafter Huang), WO 2021114043 A1 (hereinafter Yuan) and US 20230309116 A1 (hereinafter Pan) (priority doc us-provisional-application US 63062704 20200807, hereinafter prov2704).
Regarding claim 14, Wijting teaches An apparatus for wireless communication at a first user
equipment (UE), comprising (Wijting [0025] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 100 for facilitating use of carrier aggregation for device-to-device communications according to some example embodiments.
[0026] The system 100 may include a plurality of communication apparatuses 102 and a serving network apparatus 104. The system 100 may further comprise a network 106. The network 106 may comprise one or more wireline networks, one or more wireless networks, or some combination thereof.
[0027] the serving network apparatus 104 may, for example, be at least partially embodied on one or more access points of the network 106 (for example, a base station, base transceiver station (BTS), node B, evolved node B (eNB), and/or the like), which may, for example be configured to provide access to the network 106 (e.g., via a radio uplink) to one or more of the communication apparatuses 102.
[0029] A communication apparatus 102 may be configured to establish a D2D connection (also referred to as a D2D link) with another device, such as another communication apparatus 102, and engage in D2D communication over the D2D connection.
[0032] A communication apparatus 102 may be embodied as mobile terminal. a communication apparatus 102 may comprise cellular communication device configured to operate on a serving cellular network.
[0039] FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a communication apparatus 102.):
a memory (Wijting Memory 112 in Fig. 3); and
one or more processors (Wijting Processor 110 in Fig. 3 ), the memory and the one or more processors being configured to (Wijting [0042]The memory 112 may be configured to store information, data, applications, instructions, or the like for enabling the communication apparatus 102 to carry out various functions in accordance with various example embodiments.
[0041] the processor 110 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 112 or otherwise accessible to the processor 110. These instructions, when executed by the processor 110, may cause the communication apparatus 102 to perform one or more of the functionalities of the communication apparatus 102 as described herein. ):
receive an indication to at least one of activate or deactivate multiple sidelink component carriers (Wijting Fig. 5, [0067] Operation 535 may comprise D[1] 502 and/or D[2] 504 performing activation and/or deactivation of one or more of the component carriers configured for use in D2D communication between D[1] 502 and D[2] 504.
[0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D1 may be configured to format a message indicating that one or more component carriers should be activated and/or that one or more component carriers should be deactivated, and may cause the formatted message to be sent via the D2D communication link to D2. D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may be configured to receive the message. Note D2 is the first UE. );
activate one or more sidelink component carriers of the multiple sidelink component carriers in response to the indication indicating activation (Wijting [0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may be configured to receive the message and manage activation of one or more component carriers based at least in part on the received message. In this regard, the D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may activate component carriers as indicated in the message. );
Wijting does not explicitly teach receive, from a network entity, a configuration message indicating multiple sidelink component carriers for the first UE and a second UE; communicate, with the second UE, a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) on a designated sidelink component carrier; establish a sidelink beam pairing on the designated sidelink component carrier with the second UE based on the sidelink SSB; wherein the indication comprises a sidelink control information (SCI) message received from a second UE on a sidelink component carrier, and the SCI includes information identifying the one or more sidelink component carriers to be at least one of activated or deactivated.
Huang in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches receive, from a network entity, a configuration message indicating multiple sidelink component carriers for the first UE and a second UE (Huang Fig.2 [0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a method of obtaining suitable component carriers for PC5 carrier aggregation in sidelink communications.
[0033] The method 200 starts with operation 201, where a BS 102 transmits a message to the UE1 104a and UE2 104b. The message comprises information that are used for the determination of at least one suitable carrier frequency or at least two suitable CCs in PC5-CA for SL communications.
[0040] In some embodiments, the information transmitted in the message from the BS 102 to the UE1 104a and UE2 104b comprises a list of available carrier frequencies that are supported by the BS 102 and/or frequencies that can be used for a SL transmission.);
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting with Huang’s above teachings. The motivation is increasing data rate for D2D communication (Huang [0004]).
Although Huang teaches communicate, with the second UE, on a designated sidelink component carrier and a designated sidelink component carrier (Huang Fig. 1B, [0003] Carrier aggregation (hereinafter “CA”) is one of the major features of LTE (long-term evolution)-advances, in which a number of separate carriers (hereinafter “component carriers” or “CC”) are combined for downlink and/or uplink transmissions.
[0004] The SL communication is supported and typically used in communications such as Device-to-Device (D2D), or Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. In the SL communication, there consists at least one UE which can directly communicate with at least another UE to realize the SL communication. In order to meet the requirement of high reliability and low latency, high capacity, and increased data rate, PC5-CA (up to 8 CCs) can be used. Currently, the UEs can select the proper CCs for PC5-CA based on their data service types, from which frequencies can be derived based on a predefined mapping relationship between the service type and frequency.
[0018] Referring to FIG. 1A, the wireless communication network 100 includes a BS 102 and UE 104a, UE 104b and a UE 104c, The UE 104a can be a vehicle (V-UE) or a pedestrian (P-UE) that is moving in the cell and meanwhile has a direct communication channel with the BS 102 operating at a first frequency f1. Although the UE 104b does not have a direct communication channel with the BS 102, it forms direct communication channels (e.g. 105a and 105b) with its neighbor UEs, e.g., UE 104a and UE 104c operating a second frequency f2 and a third frequency f3, respectively.
[0021] FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system 150 for transmitting and receiving downlink, uplink and sidelink communication signals .
[0022] System 150 generally includes a BS 102 and two UEs 104a and 104b, collectively referred to as UE 104 below for ease of discussion. The BS 102 communicates with the UE 104 via a communication channel 192, which can be any wireless channel or other medium known in the art suitable for transmission of data as described herein.
[0024 ]The UE transceiver 162 communicates through the UE antenna 164 with the BS 102 via the wireless communication channel 192 or with other UEs via the wireless communication channel 193. The wireless communication channel 193 can be any wireless channel or other medium known in the art suitable for sidelink transmission of data as described herein.
Note: operating frequency of wireless channel 193 is a component carrier between UE 104a and UE104b in Fig. 1B.); Huang does not explicitly teach a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB);
Yuan in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) (Yuan Fig. 2, page 12 S210: The second terminal device sends N first reference signals to the first terminal device, where N is a positive integer. Page 13, the first reference signal may be a sidelink-SSB (sidelink-SSB, S-SSB). page 14, Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device can use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the second beam, and can also use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the first resource for sending the confirmation information. The second terminal device can determine the first beam according to the first resource, so that beam pairing can be realized. The first terminal device and the second terminal device use the paired first beam and the second beam to communicate, thereby facilitating D2D communication. ).
By modifying Huang’s teachings of communicate, with the second UE, on a designated sidelink component carrier with Yuan’s teachings of a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB); the modification results in communicate, with the second UE, a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) on a designated sidelink component carrier;
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang with Yuan’s above teachings. The motivation is supporting beam pairing that is beneficial to D2D communication (Yuan page 16).
Although Yuan teaches establishing a sidelink beam pairing with the second UE based on the sidelink SSB (Yuan Fig. 2, page 12 S210: The second terminal device sends N first reference signals to the first terminal device, where N is a positive integer. Page 13, the first reference signal may be a sidelink-SSB (sidelink-SSB, S-SSB). page 14, Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device can use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the second beam, and can also use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the first resource for sending the confirmation information. The second terminal device can determine the first beam according to the first resource, so that beam pairing can be realized. The first terminal device and the second terminal device use the paired first beam and the second beam to communicate, thereby facilitating D2D communication.); Yuan does not explicitly teach a designated sidelink component carrier.
Huang teaches a designated sidelink component carrier (Huang [0003-0004], [0018], [0021-0022] and [0024] cited above).
By modifying Yuan’s teachings of establishing a sidelink beam pairing with the second UE based on the sidelink SSB with Huang’s teachings of a designated sidelink component carrier, the modification results in establishing a sidelink beam pairing on the designated sidelink component carrier with the second UE based on the sidelink SSB;
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Yuan’s above teachings. The motivation is supporting beam pairing that is beneficial to D2D communication (Yuan page 16).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Huang’s above teachings. The motivation is increasing data rate for D2D communication (Huang [0004]).
Pan in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein the indication comprises a sidelink control information (SCI) message received from a second UE on a sidelink component carrier, the SCI including information to at least one of activate or deactivate the one or more sidelink component carriers (Pan [0134] Inter-UE coordination for multi-carrier operation may also be possible via assistance signaling or assistance information from another sidelink UE. Assistance signaling or assistance information may also be conveyed and communicated for carrier activation/deactivation for SL multi-carrier operation between UEs, e.g., between transmitting UE and receiving UEs. Carriers may be activated or deactivated via sidelink PSCCH and/or PSSCH (e.g., 1.sup.st stage SCI, 2.sup.nd stage SCI). (prov2704 [00127])
Table 1, [0143] SCI Format is carried in PSCCH in Primary Carrier. The example shows eight CCs via Carrier Index Field. (prov2704 [00136]) ).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Pan’s above teachings. The motivation is providing efficient sidelink muli-carrier operation (Pan [0003] (prov2704 [0002])).
Claim 1 recites similar limitations of claim 14, is thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 10, Wijting teaches A method of wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE), comprising (Wijting [0025] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a system 100 for facilitating use of carrier aggregation for device-to-device communications according to some example embodiments.
[0026] The system 100 may include a plurality of communication apparatuses 102 and a serving network apparatus 104. The system 100 may further comprise a network 106. The network 106 may comprise one or more wireline networks, one or more wireless networks, or some combination thereof.
[0027] the serving network apparatus 104 may, for example, be at least partially embodied on one or more access points of the network 106 (for example, a base station, base transceiver station (BTS), node B, evolved node B (eNB), and/or the like), which may, for example be configured to provide access to the network 106 (e.g., via a radio uplink) to one or more of the communication apparatuses 102.
[0029] A communication apparatus 102 may be configured to establish a D2D connection (also referred to as a D2D link) with another device, such as another communication apparatus 102, and engage in D2D communication over the D2D connection.
[0032] A communication apparatus 102 may be embodied as mobile terminal. a communication apparatus 102 may comprise cellular communication device configured to operate on a serving cellular network. ):
transmitting an indication to at least one of activate or deactivate multiple sidelink component carriers (Wijting Fig. 5, [0067] Operation 535 may comprise D[1] 502 and/or D[2] 504 performing activation and/or deactivation of one or more of the component carriers configured for use in D2D communication between D[1] 502 and D[2] 504.
[0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D1 may be configured to format a message indicating that one or more component carriers should be activated and/or that one or more component carriers should be deactivated, and may cause the formatted message to be sent via the D2D communication link to D2. Note: D1 is the first UE.);
activating one or more sidelink component carriers of the multiple sidelink component carriers in response to the indication indicating activation (Wijting [0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may be configured to receive the message and manage activation of one or more component carriers based at least in part on the received message. In this regard, the D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may activate component carriers as indicated in the message. );
Wijting does not explicitly teach receiving, from a network entity, a configuration message indicating multiple sidelink component carriers for the first UE and a second UE; communicating, with the first UE, a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) on a designated sidelink component carrier; establishing a sidelink beam pairing on the designated sidelink component carrier with the first UE based on the sidelink SSB; wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting a sidelink control information (SCI) message on a sidelink component carrier to the second UE, the SCI including information to at least one of activate or deactivate the one or more sidelink component carriers.
Huang in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches receive, from a network entity, a configuration message indicating multiple sidelink component carriers for the first UE and a second UE (Huang Fig.2 [0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a method of obtaining suitable component carriers for PC5 carrier aggregation in sidelink communications.
[0033] The method 200 starts with operation 201, where a BS 102 transmits a message to the UE1 104a and UE2 104b. The message comprises information that are used for the determination of at least one suitable carrier frequency or at least two suitable CCs in PC5-CA for SL communications.
[0040] In some embodiments, the information transmitted in the message from the BS 102 to the UE1 104a and UE2 104b comprises a list of available carrier frequencies that are supported by the BS 102 and/or frequencies that can be used for a SL transmission.);
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting with Huang’s above teachings. The motivation is increasing data rate for D2D communication (Huang [0004]).
Although Huang teaches communicate, with the first UE, on a designated sidelink component carrier (Huang Fig. 1B, [0003] Carrier aggregation (hereinafter “CA”) is one of the major features of LTE (long-term evolution)-advances, in which a number of separate carriers (hereinafter “component carriers” or “CC”) are combined for downlink and/or uplink transmissions.
[0004] The SL communication is supported and typically used in communications such as Device-to-Device (D2D), or Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. In the SL communication, there consists at least one UE which can directly communicate with at least another UE to realize the SL communication. In order to meet the requirement of high reliability and low latency, high capacity, and increased data rate, PC5-CA (up to 8 CCs) can be used. Currently, the UEs can select the proper CCs for PC5-CA based on their data service types, from which frequencies can be derived based on a predefined mapping relationship between the service type and frequency.
[0018] Referring to FIG. 1A, the wireless communication network 100 includes a BS 102 and UE 104a, UE 104b and a UE 104c, The UE 104a can be a vehicle (V-UE) or a pedestrian (P-UE) that is moving in the cell and meanwhile has a direct communication channel with the BS 102 operating at a first frequency f1. Although the UE 104b does not have a direct communication channel with the BS 102, it forms direct communication channels (e.g. 105a and 105b) with its neighbor UEs, e.g., UE 104a and UE 104c operating a second frequency f2 and a third frequency f3, respectively.
[0021] FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary wireless communication system 150 for transmitting and receiving downlink, uplink and sidelink communication signals .
[0022] System 150 generally includes a BS 102 and two UEs 104a and 104b, collectively referred to as UE 104 below for ease of discussion. The BS 102 communicates with the UE 104 via a communication channel 192, which can be any wireless channel or other medium known in the art suitable for transmission of data as described herein.
[0024 ]The UE transceiver 162 communicates through the UE antenna 164 with the BS 102 via the wireless communication channel 192 or with other UEs via the wireless communication channel 193. The wireless communication channel 193 can be any wireless channel or other medium known in the art suitable for sidelink transmission of data as described herein.
Note: operating frequency of wireless channel 193 is a component carrier between UE 104a and UE104b in Fig. 1B.); Huang does not explicitly teach a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB);
Yuan in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) (Yuan Fig. 2, page 12 S210: The second terminal device sends N first reference signals to the first terminal device, where N is a positive integer. Page 13, the first reference signal may be a sidelink-SSB (sidelink-SSB, S-SSB). page 14, Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device can use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the second beam, and can also use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the first resource for sending the confirmation information. The second terminal device can determine the first beam according to the first resource, so that beam pairing can be realized. The first terminal device and the second terminal device use the paired first beam and the second beam to communicate, thereby facilitating D2D communication. ).
By modifying Huang’s teachings of communicate, with the first UE, on a designated sidelink component carrier with Yuan’s teachings of a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB), the modification results in communicate, with the first UE, a sidelink synchronization signal block (SSB) on a designated sidelink component carrier;
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang with Huang’s above teachings. The motivation is increasing data rate for D2D communication (Huang [0004]).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang with Yuan’s above teachings. The motivation is supporting beam pairing that is beneficial to D2D communication (Yuan page 16).
Although Yuan teaches establishing a sidelink beam pairing with the first UE based on the sidelink SSB (Yuan Fig. 2, page 12 S210: The second terminal device sends N first reference signals to the first terminal device, where N is a positive integer. Page 13, the first reference signal may be a sidelink-SSB (sidelink-SSB, S-SSB). page 14, Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device can use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the second beam, and can also use at least part of the received first reference signal to determine the first resource for sending the confirmation information. The second terminal device can determine the first beam according to the first resource, so that beam pairing can be realized. The first terminal device and the second terminal device use the paired first beam and the second beam to communicate, thereby facilitating D2D communication.); Yuan does not explicitly teach a designated sidelink component carrier;
Huang teaches a designated sidelink component carrier (Huang [0003-0004], [0018], [0021-0022] and [0024] cited above).
By modifying Yuan’s teachings of establishing a sidelink beam pairing with the first UE based on the sidelink SSB with Huang’s teachings of a designated sidelink component carrier, the modification results in establishing a sidelink beam pairing on the designated sidelink component carrier with the first UE based on the sidelink SSB;
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Yuan’s above teachings. The motivation is supporting beam pairing that is beneficial to D2D communication (Yuan page 16).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Huang’s above teachings. The motivation is increasing data rate for D2D communication (Huang [0004]).
Pan in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein transmitting the indication comprises transmitting a sidelink control information (SCI) message on a sidelink component carrier to the second UE, the SCI including information to at least one of activate or deactivate the one or more sidelink component carriers (Pan [0134] Inter-UE coordination for multi-carrier operation may also be possible via assistance signaling or assistance information from another sidelink UE. Assistance signaling or assistance information may also be conveyed and communicated for carrier activation/deactivation for SL multi-carrier operation between UEs, e.g., between transmitting UE and receiving UEs. Carriers may be activated or deactivated via sidelink PSCCH and/or PSSCH (e.g., 1.sup.st stage SCI, 2.sup.nd stage SCI). (prov2704 [00127])
Table 1, [0143] SCI Format is carried in PSCCH in Primary Carrier. The example shows eight CCs via Carrier Index Field. (prov2704 [00136]) ).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Wijting as modified by Huang and Yuan with Pan’s above teachings. The motivation is providing efficient sidelink muli-carrier operation (Pan [0003] (prov2704 [0002])).
Regarding claim 2, Wijting in view of Huang and Yuan and Pan (hereinafter combination)
teaches The method of claim 1.
Wijting teaches further comprising deactivating the one or more sidelink component carriers in
response to the indication indicating deactivation (Wijting [0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D1 may be configured to format a message indicating that one or more component carriers should be activated and/or that one or more component carriers should be deactivated, and may cause the formatted message to be sent via the D2D communication link to D2. D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may be configured to receive the message and manage activation of one or more component carriers based at least in part on the received message. In this regard, the D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D2 may deactivate component carriers as indicated in the message. ).
Claims 11 and 15 recite similar limitations of claim 2, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 3, the combination teaches The method of claim 1.
Wijting teaches wherein the indication corresponds to at least one of a media access control
(MAC) control element (CE) and a downlink control information (DCI) (Wijting [0071] a message that may be exchanged between communication apparatuses for managing activation of component carriers may comprise a Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (MAC CE). ).
Claims 12 and 16 recite similar limitations of claim 3, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 5, the combination teaches The method of claim 3.
Wijting teaches wherein receiving the indication to at least one of activate or deactivate the
multiple sidelink component carriers further comprises receiving the at least one of the MAC CE or the SCI on the sidelink component carrier from a second UE (Wijting [0073] FIG. 6B illustrates an example MAC CE that may be used for activation/deactivation of component carriers for D2D links.
[0069] D2D control circuitry 118 associated with D1 may be configured to format a message indicating that one or more component carriers should be activated and/or that one or more component carriers should be deactivated, and may cause the formatted message to be sent via the D2D communication link to D2.
[0081] an example MAC CE 606 is illustrated that may be sent from D1 to D2 to activate component carriers C9, C4, C3, C2, C1 for transmission. ).
Claim 18 recites similar limitations of claim 5, is thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 6, the combination teaches The method of claim 3.
Wijting teaches wherein the at least one of the MAC CE, the DCI or the SCI include a payload for
indicating the one or more sidelink component carriers to be at least one of activated or deactivated (Wijting [0073] FIG. 6B illustrates an example MAC CE that may be used for activation/deactivation of component carriers for D2D links.
[0075] The payload may include a bit for every component carrier present in the carrier aggregation configuration, which may be selectively set to indicate whether the respective component carrier should be activated or deactivated. ).
Claim 19 recites similar limitations of claim 6, is thus rejected under similar rational.
Regarding claim 8, the combination teaches The method of claim 1,
Wijting teaches wherein activating the one or more sidelink component carriers further
comprises enabling sidelink communications with a second UE on the one or more sidelink component carriers (Wijting [0059] D1 and D2 may negotiate a carrier aggregation configuration for D2D communication between D1 and D2 in which component carriers #3, #4, and #5 are usable for D2D communication from D1 to D2 and component carriers #3 and #4 are usable for D2D communication from D2 to D1. At least momentarily, component carriers #3, #4, and #5 may be active for D2D transmissions from D1 to D2, meaning that D2 may receive Transport Blocks on any of component carriers #3, #4, and #5. ).
Regarding claim 9, the combination teaches The method of claim 1.
Wijting teaches wherein activating the one or more sidelink component carriers further
comprises disabling sidelink communications with a second UE on the one or more sidelink component carriers (Wijting [0059] D1 and D2 may negotiate a carrier aggregation configuration for D2D communication between D1 and D2 in which component carriers #3, #4, and #5 are usable for D2D communication from D1 to D2 and component carriers #3 and #4 are usable for D2D communication from D2 to D1. For purposes of this example, only component carrier #3 may be active for use in the opposite link direction from D2 to D1 (for example, component carrier #4 may be momentarily deactivated for transmissions from D2 to D1), meaning that D2 transmits on component carrier #3 only and D1 receives Transport Blocks on component carrier #3 only. ).
Claim(s) 4, 13 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wijting in view of Huang and Yuan and Pan as applied to claim 3, 12 and 16 above, and further in view of WO 2018228127 A1 by Wang et al. (hereinafter Wang).
Regarding claim 4, the combination teaches The method of claim 3.
The combination does not explicitly teach wherein receiving the indication to at least one of
activate or deactivate the multiple sidelink component carriers further comprises receiving the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI on a downlink channel from a network entity.
Wang in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein receiving the indication to at least one of activate or deactivate the multiple sidelink component carriers further comprises receiving the at least one of the MAC CE or the DCI on a downlink channel from a network entity ( Wang page 14-15, Sidelink carrier aggregation is a direct and effective method to improve the V2X communication data rate of a UE on a sidechain link. As shown in Figure 2,..UE1 and UE2 can perform V2X sidelink communication on carrier frequencies f1 and f4 through side chain carrier aggregation; UE1 and UE3 can perform V2X sidelink communication on carrier frequencies f2 and f1 through side chain carrier aggregation. Taking the UE2 and UE3 sideband carrier aggregation V2X sidelink communication as an example, it is assumed that the sidelink link established on f1 is the main sidelink link (Sidelink Primary link, SL Plink for short), and the other carrier frequency sidelink links added by SL Plink are supplemented. Sidelink Secondary link (SL Slink).
page 31, the UE1 and the UE2 are configured with sideband carrier aggregation, and the eNB controls the activation/deactivation of the SL Slink. As shown in FIG. 7, the specific includes:
Step 701, the eNB configures the SL Slink activation status indication information to the UE1;
the eNB activates/deactivates the MAC control unit (sidelink activation/deactivation) through a sidelink in a MAC PDU (Protocol Data Unit) of a Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH). ).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination with Wang’s above teachings. The motivation is improving the data transmission rate of the V2X communication of the sidechain interface (Wang page 13).
Claims 13 and 17 recite similar limitations of claim 4, are thus rejected under similar rational.
Claim(s) 7 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wijting in view of Huang and Yuan and Pan as applied to claim 3 and 16 above, and further in view of US 20140016506 A1 by Gauvreau et al. (hereinafter Gauvreau).
Regarding claim 7, the combination teaches The method of claim 3.
Although Wijting teaches MAC CE and sidelink component carriers ( Wijting [0071]
cited above in claim 3 rejection. ), Wijting does not explicitly teach wherein the at least one of the MAC CE, the DCI or the SCI implicitly indicate the one or more component carriers to be at least one of activated or deactivated.
Gauvreau in the same or similar field of endeavor teaches wherein the at least one of the MAC CE, the DCI or the SCI implicitly indicate the one or more component carriers to be at least one of activated or deactivated (Gauvreau [0033] The indication of whether the command corresponds to activation or deactivation may be performed by setting a bit or it may be implicit based on the current activation or deactivation state of the carrier. Alternatively, it may be based on the carrier the MAC PDU was received on. For example, if the MAC CE was contained in a MAC PDU received in a given carrier, (e.g., an "anchor carrier" or a "serving cell"), then the command is understood to be for activation of the carrier indicated in the MAC CE. If the MAC CE was contained in a MAC PDU received in a carrier, (possibly without explicit indication of a carrier within the MAC CE itself), then the command is understood to be a deactivation for the carrier the MAC PDU was received from, or alternatively a deactivation for a pre-defined set of carriers. ).
Therefore Wijting in combination with Gauvreau teaches wherein the at least one of the MAC CE, the DCI or the SCI implicitly indicate the one or more sidelink component carriers to be at least one of activated or deactivated.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination with Gauvreau’s above teachings. The motivation is providing savings of power consumption (Gauvreau [0004]).
Claim 20 recites similar limitations of claim 7, is thus rejected under similar rational.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/D.Z.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2418
/Moo Jeong/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
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