DETAILED ACTION
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)(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 21-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being unpatentable by Freda et al. (US 2022/0150730, “Freda”; Provisional 62/840,741 filed on Apr. 30, 2019, hereinafter “Prov’741”).
Regarding claim 21, Freda discloses a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
- one or more memories storing processor-executable code; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the first UE to (See Fig.1B):
- detect, based at least in part on a first timer at the first UE, that a gap in communications via a sidelink connection with a second UE exceeds a threshold time (See ¶.98, declare SL-RLF under condition that said HARQ feedback not being received within an expected time instant (DTX), for n consecutive times from said starting said inactivity timer, and wherein said measure of said feedback transmission is a quality of said HARQ for a purpose of verifying said condition that said measure of said feedback transmission received from the second WRTU device is above a threshold under condition that said HARQ feedback is received within said expected time instant; See ¶.281, a WTRU may have certain prioritization rules associated with conflicting transmissions of RS and data. For example, a WTRU may prioritize data transmissions over RS transmissions and may delay and/or skip an RS transmission if the WTRU it detects such conflict. In certain conditions, a WTRU may prioritize RS transmissions over data transmissions. For example, if the elapsed time since the last RS transmission exceeds a threshold, the WTRU may perform RS transmission and delay/skip the data transmission; See ¶.310, a WTRU may start/restart such timer upon transmission of an RS. Such RS transmission may be initiated by RLM (e.g. following timer expiry) or may be initiated due to required RS for other purposes (e.g. WTRU may determine RS is to be transmitted for Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) measurements or may be required as a result of a request for RS transmission by the peer WTRU; Prov’741,
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- format, responsive to the gap in communications exceeding the threshold time, a packet at a first layer of the first UE (See ¶.282, a WTRU may be configured with a table of data QoS/priority and/or elapsed time since last RS transmission and/or CBR. A WTRU may then determine whether to prioritize data or RS based on this table, the priority/QoS of the data to be transmitted, and the elapsed time since the last RS transmission; See ¶.193-194, two WTRUs could establish for example a one-to-one Proximity-based Services (ProSe) Direct Communication over the PC5 protocol layer on top of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). In LTE D2D, one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication is realized by establishing a secure layer-2 link over PC5 between two WTRUs. Each WTRU has a Layer-2 identifier (ID) for unicast communication that is included in the Source Layer-2 ID field of every frame that it sends on the layer-2 link and in the Destination Layer-2 ID of every frame that it receives on the layer-2 link. The layer-2 link for one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication is identified by the combination of the Layer-2 IDs of the two WTRUs. This means that the WTRU can engage in multiple layer-2 links for one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication using the same Layer-2 ID; See ¶.865, NR V2X may support unicast links between peer WTRUs visible to the AS layer, so RLM/RLF support may be required; Prov’741,
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);
- provide the packet to a second layer of the first UE for transmission to the second UE (See ¶.257, the WTRU may inform PHY layers to initiate/stop transmission of RS upon reception of such a message. The RRC layer may further maintain the number of unicast/groupcast links in which the WTRU WTRU may transmit a reference signal on a physical (PHY) layer discovery channel, possibly embedded in the time/frequency resources used for the discovery transmission; Prov’741,
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); and
- transmit the packet to the second UE via the sidelink connection (See Fig.3 and ¶.206-207, transmitting to a second UE/WTRU; Prov’741,
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).
Regarding claim 22, Freda discloses “initiate a link maintenance for the sidelink connection with the second UE (See Fig.3 and ¶.198, establishment and maintenance of secure L2 link over PC5 may be defined; Prov’741,
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).”
Regarding claim 23, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to one or more of: determine that data traffic of the sidelink connection has been inactive for at least the threshold time (See ¶.79, while the inactivity timer is running, performing RLM-RLF based on reception of feedback transmission from said second WTRU); determine that a signal from the second UE via the sidelink connection has not been successfully received for at least the threshold time (See ¶.4, declaring, for a communication link with a second WTRU, Sidelink Radio Link Failure (SL-RLF) for said communication link; See ¶.281, if the elapsed time since the last RS transmission exceeds a threshold, the WTRU may perform RS transmission and delay/skip the data transmission); or determine that a number of communication errors that have occurred in the sidelink connection meet or exceed a threshold error count (See ¶.138, the data may have varying quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements; Prov’741,
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).
Regarding claim 24, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: start the first timer upon receipt of a communication from the second UE via the sidelink connection (See ¶.310, a WTRU may start/restart such timer upon transmission of an RS. Such RS transmission may be initiated by RLM (e.g. following timer expiry) or may be initiated due to required RS for other purposes (e.g. WTRU may determine RS is to be transmitted for Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) measurements or may be required as a result of a request for RS transmission by the peer WTRU; See ¶.380, a WTRU starts/stops a timer related to an RLF operation, such as a T310-like timer; See further ¶.20-25 and ¶.83; Prov’741,
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.”
Regarding claim 25, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: receive, from the second UE, a measurement report based at least in part on the packet transmission to the second UE (See ¶.41, a Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) request over said radio link followed by a corresponding CQI reported by said second WTRU; See ¶.356, Measurement reports, such as a CQI report, report of sidelink RSRP/RSSI/Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR), report of measured CBR, report of sidelink sensing/occupancy results, etc.; Prov’741,
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).”
Regarding claim 26, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: format a first layer packet independently of input from one or more other layers at the first UE (See ¶.282, a WTRU may be configured with a table of data QoS/priority and/or elapsed time since last RS transmission and/or CBR. A WTRU may then determine whether to prioritize data or RS based on this table, the priority/QoS of the data to be transmitted, and the elapsed time since the last RS transmission; See ¶.193-194, two WTRUs could establish for example a one-to-one Proximity-based Services (ProSe) Direct Communication over the PC5 protocol layer on top of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). In LTE D2D, one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication is realized by establishing a secure layer-2 link over PC5 between two WTRUs. Each WTRU has a Layer-2 identifier (ID) for unicast communication that is included in the Source Layer-2 ID field of every frame that it sends on the layer-2 link and in the Destination Layer-2 ID of every frame that it receives on the layer-2 link. The layer-2 link for one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication is identified by the combination of the Layer-2 IDs of the two WTRUs. This means that the WTRU can engage in multiple layer-2 links for one-to-one ProSe Direct Communication using the same Layer-2 ID; See ¶.865, NR V2X may support unicast links between peer WTRUs visible to the AS layer, so RLM/RLF support may be required; Prov’741,
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).”
Regarding claim 27, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: identify, at the first layer, new data traffic for the sidelink connection with the second UE; and reset the first timer (See ¶.432, RLF triggered on one SL process may result in RLF triggered on a different SL process. In another embodiment, RLF triggered on one SL process may result in the WTRU resetting a RLF timer associated with another SL process; Prov’741,
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Regarding claim 28, Freda discloses “each of the first UE and the second UE independently trigger a link maintenance procedure based at least in part on a communications gap on the sidelink connection exceeding the threshold time (See ¶.265, when RLF is triggered: a WTRU may perform RS transmissions based on the sidelink radio link failure (SL-RLF)-state associated with the WTRU or a specific unicast link. Specifically, a WTRU may stop previously configured RS transmissions upon detection of RLF associated with a unicast link; See ¶.281, if the elapsed time since the last RS transmission exceeds a threshold, the WTRU may perform RS transmission and delay/skip the data transmission; See ¶.310-312, a WTRU may either transmit data with RS immediately following expiry of the timer, or may transmit RS with data upon the next scheduled or triggered data transmission following timer expiry. Specifically, a WTRU may perform any of the following: [0311] (i) Immediate transmission following timer expiry: A WTRU may perform immediate transmission of RS, either in standalone RS fashion, or in conjunction with data and/or control information. For example, a WTRU may perform a one-shot resource selection procedure initiated by the expiry of the RS transmission timer, and may include any pending data, dummy data (e.g. using an indication that the transmission does not contain useful information) or control information within the transmission resources, along with the RS transmission. [0312] (ii) RS Transmissions at the next available data transmission: Alternatively, the WTRU may perform RS transmission at the next data transmission scheduled or initiated following expiry of the timer; Prov’741,
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Regarding claim 29, Freda discloses “the sidelink connection with the second UE is a unicast sidelink connection (See ¶.198, unicast communication over PC5 interface; Prov’741,
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Regarding claim 30, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: transmit a signal to solicit the second UE to transmit a packet for measurement at the first UE (See ¶.310, a WTRU may start/restart such timer upon transmission of an RS. Such RS transmission may be initiated by RLM (e.g. following timer expiry) or may be initiated due to required RS for other purposes (e.g. WTRU may determine RS is to be transmitted for Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) measurements or may be required as a result of a request for RS transmission by the peer WTRU; Prov’741,
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Regarding claim 31, Freda discloses “cause the first UE to: transmit an indication to the second layer to transmit a reference signal transmission to the second UE (See ¶.51, the first WTRU detecting a Reference Signal requested as part of said first set of at least one transmission, being above a threshold; See ¶.221, a WTRU may transmit reference signals on PSSCH without any data, such as on one or a set of subchannels indicated by SCI. Specifically, an SCI may indicate the presence of one or more subchannels used for transmission of RS only; See ¶.238, configuration of the RS may refer to any of: indication of presence/absence of RLM RS, time/frequency/beam location of the RLM RS, TX power of the RLM RS, PHY layer sequence associated with the RLM RS; See ¶.257, the WTRU may inform PHY layers to initiate/stop transmission of RS upon reception of such a message; Prov’741,
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Regarding claim 32, Freda discloses “the packet includes a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) transmission using only reference signal symbols (See ¶.310, a WTRU may start/restart such timer upon transmission of an RS. Such RS transmission may be initiated by RLM (e.g. following timer expiry) or may be initiated due to required RS for other purposes (e.g. WTRU may determine RS is to be transmitted for Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) measurements or may be required as a result of a request for RS transmission by the peer WTRU; See ¶.215, a WTRU may transmit references signals within the set of symbols reserved or associated with SCI transmissions and may perform such transmission in a standalone manner; See ¶.220-221, a WTRU may transmit reference signals embedded in a data transmission (Transport Block (TB) transmission) on PSSCH. [0221] b. RLM RS in PSSCH resources indicated by SCI: for example, a WTRU may transmit reference signals on PSSCH without any data, such as on one or a set of subchannels indicated by SCI. Specifically, an SCI may indicate the presence of one or more subchannels used for transmission of RS only; Prov’741, pg.27,
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Regarding claim 33, Freda discloses a second user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more memories storing processor-executable code; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to execute the code to cause the second UE to:
- establish a sidelink connection with a first UE (See Fig.3);
- receive, from the first UE, a link maintenance procedure message via the sidelink connection that indicates to transmit a packet via the sidelink connection (303 Fig.3 and the related paragraphs);
- format the packet at a first layer for transmission to the first UE (as rejected in claim 21);
- provide the packet to a second layer for transmission to the first UE (as rejected in claim 21); and
- transmit the packet to the first UE over the sidelink connection (as rejected in claim 21).
Regarding claim 34, Freda discloses “cause the second UE to: initiate a first timer at the second UE responsive to receipt of the link maintenance procedure message; and transmit, to the first UE, a second a link maintenance procedure message via the sidelink connection (See ¶.84, said first WTRU sending an In Sync (IS) indication under condition of reception of data or of at said least one signal from said second WTRU during said at least one period; See ¶.181, to start transmitting and receiving V2X messages without assistance from the network; See ¶.208, Reference Signals (RS) required for In Sync/Out of Sync (IS/OOS) determination need to be transmitted by a WTRU on sidelink, and the resources for such signal need to be defined so that they are coordinated between the two WTRUs, in addition with other WTRUs using the sidelink; See ¶.272-274, a WTRU may receive a SL message (e.g. SL-RRC message, SL-MAC-Control Entity (SL-MAC CE), SCI with dedicated indication) requesting to perform a one-shot RS transmission or to start/stop transmission of periodic/aperiodic RS transmission. [0273] Based on expiry of a timer associated with transmissions by the WTRU or peer WTRU: a WTRU may perform RS transmission upon the expiry of a timer associated with any of the following events or WTRU actions: [0274] a. A WTRU may transmit RS if a time T has expired since the last transmission of an RS; A WTRU which receives such indication from the peer WTRU may stop or pause RS-based RLM/RLF and start performing a different RLM/RLF mechanism based on the type of indication received. For example, such WTRU may perform any of the following: See ¶.377-380, a WTRU measures one or a number of out of sync (OOS) events associated with a received RS from a peer WTRU; [0378] A WTRU measures a successive number of IS/OOS; [0379] A WTRU measures the quality of a peer WTRU RS below/above a threshold; [0380] a WTRU starts/stops a timer related to an RLF operation, such as a T310-like timer; See ¶.403-406, a WTRU which receives such indication from the peer WTRU may stop or pause RS-based RLM/RLF and start performing a different RLM/RLF mechanism based on the type of indication received. For example, such WTRU may perform any of the following: [0404] Stop monitoring of RLM-RS associated with data transmissions by the peer WTRU [0405] Clear all timers (e.g. T310-like) and counters (e.g. N310-like) associated with RLM-based RLF [0406] Start any procedures associated with the alternative RLM/RLF procedure; See ¶.712, a WTRU may start a timer upon the occurrence of an indication period in which no SCI/RS is received. Such timer may be reset at the reception of SCI/RS; See ¶.432, RLF triggered on one SL process may result in RLF triggered on a different SL process. In another embodiment, RLF triggered on one SL process may result in the WTRU resetting a RLF timer associated with another SL process. In another example, one or more IS reported from one SL process resets an RLF timer in another SL process; See further ¶.465, ¶.637, ¶.684, ¶.776-778, and ¶.904; Prov’741, See ¶.92, ¶.129, ¶.132, ¶.166, ¶.182, ¶.196, ¶.198, ¶.217-218, ¶.278, and ¶.352).”
Regarding claims 35-37, they are claims corresponding to claims 28, 29, & the determining step of 23, respectively and are therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claims.
Regarding claim 38, Freda discloses “the link maintenance procedure message from the first UE does not contain user plane data that is to be provided to one or more higher layers at the second UE (See ¶.256-257, a WTRU may receive such indication from upper layers (e.g. RRC layers). [0257] a. According to an embodiment, a WTRU may receive an RRC message (from the network, or from a peer WTRU via SL-RRC) indicating successful link establishment, or link release. The WTRU may inform PHY layers to initiate/stop transmission of RS upon reception of such a message. The RRC layer may further maintain the number of unicast/groupcast links in which the WTRU is involved and may send an indication to start RS transmission when the first link is established. The RRC layer may send indication to stop RS transmission when the last link is released; Prov’741, See ¶.126).”
Regarding claim 39, Freda discloses “the link maintenance procedure message is a keepalive message received from the first UE (See ¶.197, the PC5 Signaling Protocol supports keep-alive functionality that is used to detect when the WTRUs are not in ProSe Communication range, so that they can proceed with implicit layer-2 link release; Prov’741, See ¶.80).”
Regarding claim 40, it is a method claim corresponding to the UE claim 21 and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of the claim.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung H Park whose telephone number is 571-272-8565. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 7:00 AM-3:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JUNG H PARK/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411