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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9-12 and 14-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WU et al. (WU), U.S. Publication No. 2023/0362896.
Regarding Claim 1, WU discloses a method comprising:
performing, by a first user equipment (UE), partial sensing during a sidelink (SL)
discontinuous reception (DRX) inactive time of the first UE over a first partial sensing occasion to obtain a first sensing result (i.e., FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate partial sensing example 300 and 320 using static sensing periods for UE 110 supporting SL-DRX… the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310; see paragraph [0028]), the first partial sensing occasion comprising a sensing occasion determined based on a most recent sensing occasion (in other words, history window 350 as shown in figure 3A) or a minimum number of slots;
determining, by the first UE based on at least the first sensing result, available resources for SL transmissions (i.e., the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310, and stores the results in a memory (e.g., portion of memory 235) for future reference… A UE determines a candidate slot for sending a signal based on data sensed in various periods over a history window.; see paragraph [0028] and abstract); and
transmitting, by the first UE, a SL transmission over a resource of the available resources (i.e., UE 110 selects transmission (TX) resources (e.g., one or more slots) to use to transmit packet 340. UE 110 can choose slots from a common transmission TX pool structure; see paragraph [0029]).
WU fails to specifically state the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) or contiguous partial sensing (CPS) and for the PBPS or for the CPS as it pertains to the claim as described above. However, WU does mention the SL-DRX cycle can be configured to be aligned with the periodicity of partial sensing periods in paragraph [0053] therefore, teaching the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) and for the PBPS. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider WU’s invention for managing power consumption of a UE as mentioned throughout WU.
Regarding Claim 16, WU discloses an apparatus (i.e., wireless system 200 for a UE; see figure 2) comprising:
a non-transitory memory storage (i.e., memory 235; see figure 2 and claim 20) comprising instructions; and
one or more processors (i.e., processor 210; see figure 2) in communication with the non-transitory memory storage, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to perform operations including:
performing partial sensing during a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) inactive time of the apparatus over a first partial sensing occasion to obtain a first sensing result (i.e., FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate partial sensing example 300 and 320 using static sensing periods for UE 110 supporting SL-DRX… the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310; see paragraph [0028]), the first partial sensing occasion comprising a sending occasion determined based on a most recent sensing occasion (in other words, history window 350 as shown in figure 3A) or a minimum number of slots;
determining, based on at least the first sensing result, available resources for SL transmissions (i.e., the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310, and stores the results in a memory (e.g., portion of memory 235) for future reference… A UE determines a candidate slot for sending a signal based on data sensed in various periods over a history window.; see paragraph [0028] and abstract); and
transmitting a SL transmission over a resource of the available resources (i.e., UE 110 selects transmission (TX) resources (e.g., one or more slots) to use to transmit packet 340. UE 110 can choose slots from a common transmission TX pool structure; see paragraph [0029]).
WU fails to specifically state the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) or contiguous partial sensing (CPS) and for the PBPS or for the CPS as it pertains to the claim as described above. However, WU does mention the SL-DRX cycle can be configured to be aligned with the periodicity of partial sensing periods in paragraph [0053] therefore, teaching the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) and for the PBPS. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider WU’s invention for managing power consumption of a UE as mentioned throughout WU.
Regarding Claim 20, WU discloses a non-transitory computer-readable media (i.e., memory 235; see figure 2 and claim 20) storing computer instructions, that when executed by an apparatus (i.e., wireless system 200 for a UE; see figure 2), cause the apparatus to perform operations including:
performing partial sensing during a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) inactive time of the apparatus over a first partial sensing occasion to obtain a first sensing result (i.e., FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate partial sensing example 300 and 320 using static sensing periods for UE 110 supporting SL-DRX… the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310; see paragraph [0028]), the first partial sensing occasion comprising a sensing occasion determined on a most recent sensing occasion (in other words, history window 350 as shown in figure 3A) or a minimum number of slots;
determining, based on at least the first sensing result, available resources for SL transmissions (i.e., the UE 110 determines whether any packets, or portions of packets, are sensed during the respective sensed periods 310, and stores the results in a memory (e.g., portion of memory 235) for future reference… A UE determines a candidate slot for sending a signal based on data sensed in various periods over a history window.; see paragraph [0028] and abstract); and
transmitting a SL transmission over a resource of the available resources (i.e., UE 110 selects transmission (TX) resources (e.g., one or more slots) to use to transmit packet 340. UE 110 can choose slots from a common transmission TX pool structure; see paragraph [0029]).
WU fails to specifically state the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) or contiguous partial sensing (CPS) and for the PBPS or for the CPS as it pertains to the claim as described above. However, WU does mention the SL-DRX cycle can be configured to be aligned with the periodicity of partial sensing periods in paragraph [0053] therefore, teaching the partial sensing comprising periodic based partial sensing (PBPS) and for the PBPS. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider WU’s invention for managing power consumption of a UE as mentioned throughout WU.
Regarding Claims 2 and 17, WU discloses the method and apparatus as described above. WU further discloses wherein the performing the partial sensing comprises: when the first UE is enabled to perform the partial sensing during the SL DRX inactive time, performing, by the first UE, the partial sensing during the SL DRX inactive time of the first UE (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claims 3 and 18, WU discloses the method and apparatus as described above. WU further discloses further comprising: receiving, by the first UE, configuration information enabling the first UE to perform the partial sensing during the SL DRX inactive time (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claims 4 and 19, WU discloses the method and apparatus as described above. WU further discloses further comprising: performing, by the first UE, the partial sensing over a second partial sensing occasion to obtain a second sensing result, the second partial sensing occasion comprising a sensing occasion determined based on at least a second most recent sensing occasion for the PBPS or a configurable number of slots for the CPS; and wherein the determining the available resources comprises: determining, by the first UE based on the first sensing result and the second sensing result, the available resources for SL transmissions (see paragraphs [0031]-[0032]).
Regarding Claim 5, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the second partial sensing occasion comprises one or more sensing occasions determined based on the most recent sensing occasion and the second most recent sensing occasion for the PBPS (see paragraphs [0031]-[0032]).
Regarding Claim 6, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the most recent sensing occasion for the PBPS is a default sensing occasion configured for the first UE for the PBPS (see paragraph [0030]).
Regarding Claim 9, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the performing the partial sensing comprises: determining, by the first UE, whether a slot during the SL DRX inactive time of the first UE is within the most recent sensing occasion; and when the slot is within the most recent sensing occasion, performing, by the first UE, the PBPS in the slot (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claim 10, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses further comprising: when the slot is outside the most recent sensing occasion, skip performing, by the first UE, the PBPS in the slot (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claim 11, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the performing the partial sensing comprises: performing, by the first UE, the PBPS only in the most recent sensing occasion during the SL DRX inactive time (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claim 12, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the performing the partial sensing comprises: performing, by the first UE, the PBPS in the most recent sensing occasion during the SL DRX inactive time for a resource reservation periodicity in a periodicity list (see paragraph [0028] and figure 3A).
Regarding Claim 14, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the partial sensing is performed according to a configuration that is pre-configured to the first UE or received by the first UE (see paragraph [0028]).
Regarding Claim 15, WU discloses the method as described above. WU further discloses wherein the configuration comprises one or more sensing parameters of the partial sensing, the one or more sensing parameters comprising one or more of: a sensing periodicity list Preserve for the PBPS; one or more sensing occasions for the PBPS (see paragraph [0028] and figure 3A); a maximum number of sensing occasions for the PBPS; a default sensing occasion for the PBPS during the SL DRX inactive time; a sensing window for the contiguous partial sensing; or a minimum sensing window for the contiguous partial sensing.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WU in view of Yu et al. (Yu), U.S. Publication No. 2022/0053460.
Regarding Claim 13, WU discloses the method as described above. WU fails to
disclose wherein the performing the partial sensing during the SL DRX inactive time comprises: receiving, by the first UE, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) in the first partial sensing occasion, the PSCCH indicating a SL resource reserved by a second UE; and performing, by the first UE, reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement based on the PSCCH. Yu discloses wherein the performing the partial sensing during the SL DRX inactive time comprises: receiving, by the first UE, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) in the first partial sensing occasion, the PSCCH indicating a SL resource reserved by a second UE; and performing, by the first UE, reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement based on the PSCCH (see paragraph [0141]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider Yu’s invention with WU’s invention to provide power savings, enhance reliability and reduce latency as described throughout Yu.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHANTELL LAKETA HEIBER whose telephone number is (571)272-0886. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9am to 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Addy, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-7795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHANTELL L HEIBER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
February 24, 2026