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
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)(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 1-3, 5-7, 9, 11-13, 15-17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gue et al (2025/0365760).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Gue discloses a first user equipment and a method of wireless communication performed by the first user equipment(see UE 101a in figures 1 and 10), the method comprising: transmitting, to a second UE (UE 101b), a first sidelink synchronization block (S-SSB) in a first subset of a bandwidth, wherein the first S-SSB comprises a first sequence shift and a first identifier associated with the first UE (see Bandwidth of 20MHz and four subsets of the bandwidth in frequency domain in figure 7A; UE 101a functions as a Tx UE, and UE 101b functions as an Rx UE. UE 101a may exchange sidelink messages with UE 101b through a sitelink in paragraph 0051; Sidelink synchronization information is carried in an S-SSB that consists of PSBCH, sidelink primary synchronization signal (S-PSS) and sidelink secondary synchronization signal (S-SSS). FIG. 2 illustrates an S-SSB slot according to some embodiments of the present disclosure in paragraph 0058; the S-SSB bandwidth is 132 (11×12) subcarriers in paragraph 0059; The S-PSS may be generated from the maximum length sequences (m-sequences) that use the same design (i.e., generator polynomials, initial values and cyclic shifts, etc.) which is used for generating the m-sequences in the primary synchronization signal (PSS) in the 3GPP documents in paragraph 0061; figure 8a); and transmitting, to the second UE, one or more additional S-SSBs in one or more additional subsets of the bandwidth, wherein the one or more additional S-SSBs comprises at least one of: a second sequence shift different from the first sequence shift (see figure 7A where one or more additional subsets of the bandwidth is one or more of the four subsets of the bandwidth of 20MHz; The S-PSS may be generated from the maximum length sequences (m-sequences) that use the same design (i.e., generator polynomials, initial values and cyclic shifts, etc.) which is used for generating the m-sequences in the primary synchronization signal (PSS) in the 3GPP documents in paragraph 0061; The S-SSS may be generated from the Gold sequences that use the same design (i.e., generator polynomials, initial values and cyclic shifts, etc.) which is utilized for generating the Gold sequences for the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) in the 3GPP documents in paragraph 0062; in FIG. 3, within one S-SSB period, there can be a number of “N” S-SSB occasions, which include S-SSB #0, S-SSB #1, . . . , S-SSB #N−3, S-SSB #N−2, and S-SSB #N−1, respectively in paragraph 0066); or a second identifier associated with the first UE different from the first identifier associated with the first UE (see For the transmission of SLSS within an S-SSB, a SyncRef UE may select an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the candidate sequences based on an SLSS identifier (ID). The SLSS ID represents an identifier of the SyncRef UE and conveys a priority of the SyncRef UE as in LTE V2X. Each SLSS ID corresponds to a unique combination of an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the 2 S-PSS candidate sequences and the 336 S-SSS candidate sequences in paragraph 0063).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Gue discloses wherein: the first sequence shift comprises a sequence shift to a sidelink primary synchronization signal (SPSS) of the first S-SSB (see The S-PSS may be generated from the maximum length sequences (m-sequences) that use the same design (i.e., generator polynomials, initial values and cyclic shifts, etc.) which is used for generating the m-sequences in the primary synchronization signal (PSS) in the 3GPP documents in paragraph 0061); and the SPSS comprises at least one of a Gold sequence or at least one m-sequence (see m-sequences and Gold-sequences in paragraphs 0061-0062).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Gue discloses wherein: the first sequence shift comprises a sequence shift to a sidelink secondary synchronization signal (SSSS) of the first S-SSB; and the SSSS comprises at least one of a Gold sequence or at least one m-sequence (see The S-SSS may be generated from the Gold sequences that use the same design (i.e., generator polynomials, initial values and cyclic shifts, etc.) which is utilized for generating the Gold sequences for the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) in the 3GPP documents in paragraph 0062).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Gue discloses wherein the second identifier associated with the first UE comprises an integer offset from the first identifier associated with the first UE (see For the transmission of SLSS within an S-SSB, a SyncRef UE may select an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the candidate sequences based on an SLSS identifier (ID). The SLSS ID represents an identifier of the SyncRef UE and conveys a priority of the SyncRef UE as in LTE V2X. Each SLSS ID corresponds to a unique combination of an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the 2 S-PSS candidate sequences and the 336 S-SSS candidate sequences in paragraph 0063. Note that 2 S-PSS candidate sequences and the 336 S-SSS candidate sequences are integer offsets).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Gue discloses wherein the second identifier associated with the first UE comprises an integer multiple of the first identifier associated with the first UE (see For the transmission of SLSS within an S-SSB, a SyncRef UE may select an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the candidate sequences based on an SLSS identifier (ID). The SLSS ID represents an identifier of the SyncRef UE and conveys a priority of the SyncRef UE as in LTE V2X. Each SLSS ID corresponds to a unique combination of an S-PSS and an S-SSS out of the 2 S-PSS candidate sequences and the 336 S-SSS candidate sequences in paragraph 0063. Note that 2 S-PSS candidate sequences and 336 S-SSS candidate sequences are integers).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Gue discloses wherein: the one or more additional S-SSBs comprises a sidelink secondary synchronization signal (SSSS); and the second sequence shift comprises a circular shift (see cyclic shifts in paragraph 0061).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Gue discloses wherein at least one of: the bandwidth comprises a 20 MHz bandwidth (see 20MHz in figure 8A); or the one or more additional subsets of the bandwidth comprises at least one of one additional subset, two additional subsets, or three additional subsets of the bandwidth.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 4, 8, 14, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gue in view of Ko et al (2022/0295464).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Gue discloses wherein: the one or more additional S-SSBs comprises the second sequence shift; the one or more additional S-SSBs further comprises a third sequence shift different from the first sequence shift and the second sequence shift (see A UE may be configured with a configuration for an S-SSB period including one or more S-SSB occasions. FIG. 3 illustrates distribution of occasions for S-SSB according to some embodiments of the present disclosure in paragraphs 0065-0066; an S-SSB and cyclic shift in paragraphs 0061-0063). Gue doesn't specifically disclose the second sequence shift is associated with a first pseudo noise (PN) sequence and the third sequence shift is associated with a second PN sequence. However, Ko discloses the use of a pseudo noise sequence (see the pseudo-random sequence may be initialized according to C.sub.init=SL-SSID at the beginning of each S-SSB in paragraph 0348) and a cyclic shift value of the S-PSS may be determined to maximize tolerance with respect to carrier frequency offset (CFO). For example, this may lower a probability of false detection because the CFO rotates a confusing sequence that confuses a sequence with another cyclic shift sequence in the frequency domain (see paragraphs 0283-0287). The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Gue discloses a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) (see PSBCH in paragraph 0004) but doesn't specifically disclose scrambling. However, Ko discloses the PSBCH may be generated based on that (i) a master information block (MIB) is scrambled according to a first scrambling sequence for scrambling of the MIB and (ii) a PSBCH payload including the scrambled MIB is scrambled according to a second scrambling sequence for the PSBCH payload in paragraphs 0014 and a PSBCH payload may be scrambled and may then be channel-coded. For example, PSBCH scrambling prior to channel coding may be performed by scrambling only an MIB according to pseudo-random sequence c(i) of NR, and the pseudo-random sequence may be initialized according to C.sub.init=SL-SSID at the beginning of each S-SSB in paragraph 0348. The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475