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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species II (Claim 3) of first group of species, Species II (Claim 5) of second group of species and Claims 11 and 12 in third group of species in the reply filed on 06/30/2026 is acknowledged.
Further, examiner acknowledges the amendment of Claims 1, 5, 11, 14 and 15 and the cancellation of Claims 2, 4, 9-10 in the reply filed 06/30/2026.
Claims 1, 3, 5-8, and 11-15 are pending in the application.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application no.
KR10-2021-0107368 and KR10-2021-0111646 filed in REPUBLIC OF KOREA on 08/13/2021 and 08/24/2021, respectively. It is noted that the applicant has filed certified copies of the applications as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 04/29/2024 and 02/12/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDSs are being considered by the examiner.
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 non-obviousness.
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.
Claims 1, 3, 5-8, 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU et al. (US 20230189152 A1), hereinafter LIU in view of LU et al. (US 20230403729 A1), hereinafter LU and further in view of Farag (US 20210250772 A1) , hereinafter Farag.
Regarding Claim 1,
LIU teaches a method comprising:
obtaining, by a first device, a sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration related to a second device (LIU, ¶0037, an SL DRX configuration may be obtained by terminal configuration, . . pre-configuration, and . . . inter-terminal negotiation, see also FIG. 1 Terminal 11/” a first device” to Terminal 11/ ”a second device)”;
obtaining, by the first device, information related to a resource pool (LIU, ¶0163-¶0168, the measurement window includes resources belonging to any resource pool);
triggering, by the first device, resource selection for a transmission of a medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) (LIU, ¶0168, the preset resource pool is a resource pool in which a first object that triggers target quantity determining and/or triggers target monitoring is located [and] may include at least one of the following: a service, a data packet, a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU), data, and a transport block (TB); see also ¶006, 4the terminal may obtain the first resource in the target configuration, and perform target monitoring and/or determine the target quantity based on the first resource); (see also LU FIG. 6; ¶0094 - ¶0107) . . .
determining, by the first device, a plurality of intervals included in the resource selection window, and including a first interval and a second interval (LIU, ¶0039, SL DRX may be divided into an active time and/or an inactive time; FIG. 4A; FIG. 3B, ¶0181-¶0185, a plurality of active intervals parsed by active time and inactive time; see also ¶0183-¶0189; ¶0292-¶0303);
determining, by the first device, a first available resource set that causes a first ratio related to the first interval to be met, and a second available resource set that causes a second ratio related to the second interval to be met (LIU, ¶0280, the process of calculating/”determining” the ratio between the quantity of resources whose first monitoring results are higher or lower than threshold and the first quantity may include:¶0281, a first ratio (; ¶0282, a second ratio related to the interval / activity/inactivity time/intervals; see also ¶0084, a ratio between an SL DRX active time and a measurement window, a ratio between duration of the SL DRX active time and duration of the measurement window, where ¶0085 further, J is a ratio between physical duration corresponding to the SL DRX active time and physical duration corresponding to the measurement window; ¶0086 II. a ratio between an SL DRX inactive time and an SL DRX active time, for example, a ratio between duration of the SL DRX inactive time and duration of the SL DRX active time);
selecting, by the first device, a transmission resource from the first available resource set (LIU, ¶0064, the terminal may determine the target quantity based on the monitoring result obtained by performing target monitoring . . .[and] the target quantity may be used for resource selection);
(see also LU ¶0106; ¶0116; ¶0132-¶0136); . . .
. . . wherein the first interval includes a first active time of the SL DRX configuration (LIU, ¶0039, SL DRX may be divided into an active time and/or an inactive time; ¶0044-¶0045 [t]he active time may include at least one of the following: on duration, a runtime when the inactivity timer runs, a runtime when the retransmission timer runs, a runtime of T400, and a round-trip latency time of a CSI report [and] the inactive time may include at least one of the following: off duration, a runtime when the RTT timer runs, a non-partial sensing window (non-partial sensing window) part, a non-sensing time, and the like; see also ¶0181-¶0187).
LIU teaches measurement windows and resource selections (LIU, disclosed throughout); and the target quantity may include resource pools (LIU ¶0055).
Yet, LIU does not explicitly teach . . . determining, by the first device, a resource selection window for the resource selection in the resource pool; . . .
However, in the analogous art LU explicitly discloses determining, by the first device, a resource selection window for the resource selection in the resource pool (LU, ¶0060, the UE/”first device” takes all available resources in the resource selection window).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine LIU’s SL DRX power saving mechanisms in sidelink with LU’s resource selection method and a device for use in sidelink communication. The motivation would be to further optimize the current resource selection method to improve the overall performance and reliability of the sidelink communication system [LU, ¶0004; ¶0077-¶0078; ¶0087].
LIU further teaches transmitting . . . sidelink control information (SCI) (LIU, ¶0038, the SL DRX configuration may be used to control the terminal’s sensing (sensing), detection, and/or transmission of a target object, where the transmission is receiving or sending [and] the target object may include sidelink control information (SCI); ¶0042 SCI may be sent at any time.
Further, LIU and LU do not explicitly teach transmitting, by the first device to the second device, sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), based on the transmission resource; and transmitting, by the first device to the second device, the MAC PDU through the PSSCH, based on the transmission resource.
However, in the analogous art, Farag explicitly discloses transmitting, by the first device to the second device, sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), based on the transmission resource (Farag, ¶0147, the first SCI format is multiplexed on a PSCCH, while the second SCI format is multiplexed along with SL data on a PSSCH that is transmitted in physical resources indicated by the first SCI format; see also ¶0248-¶0250; ¶0270-0273); and
transmitting, by the first device to the second device, the MAC PDU through the PSSCH, based on the transmission resource (Farag, ¶0456, a new packet arrives for sidelink transmission in slot n, the packet is segmented into K physical layer transmissions on PSSCH; see also FIG. 19A, ¶0460)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine LIU’s SL DRX power saving mechanisms in sidelink and LU’s resource selection method and a device for use in sidelink communication with Farag’s resource selection method for sidelink. The motivation would be to improve quality of service and minimize collision rate [Farag, ¶0427].
Regarding Claim 3, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU further teaches the first ratio is different from the second ratio (LIU, ¶0282, determining, by the terminal, a second ratio based on the second monitoring result; and determining a third ratio based on the third monitoring result, ¶0301 the threshold 3 and threshold 4 may be the same or different; see also ¶0303 weighted summation may be performed on the two calculation results or the two calculation results may be respectively used to determine resource selection and/or transmission parameters of the active and inactive parts, for example, corresponding to different channel occupancy ratio (CR) limits and/or transmission parameter configurations).
Regarding Claim 5, LIU and LU and Farag Claim 1.
LIU further teaches a first reference signal receiver power (RSRP} threshold value related to the first interval is different from a second RSRP threshold value related to the second interval (LIU, ¶0256 he threshold may be an RSRP threshold; ¶0299-¶0300, when the target quantity is determined, measurement results within the active time are compared with a threshold 1, and measurement results within the inactive time are compared with a threshold 2. For example, the threshold 2 may be lower than the threshold 1; ¶0301 the threshold 3 and threshold 4 may be the same or different).
Regarding Claim 6, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU and LU do not explicitly teach the first interval is a temporally earliest interval among the plurality of intervals.
However, in the analogous art, Farag explicitly discloses the first interval is a temporally earliest interval among the plurality of intervals (Farag, ¶0421-¶0424, sidelink resources arranged in time order [and] earliest randomly selected resource being the first-in-time; see also ¶0440-¶0446 the segments are transmitted sequentially; a first segment is transmitted on the first-in-time randomly selected single-slot resource, the first segment is re-transmitted (if needed) on the next-in-time single-slot resource(s)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine LIU’s SL DRX power saving mechanisms in sidelink and LU’s resource selection method and a device for use in sidelink communication with Farag’s resource selection method for sidelink. The motivation would be to improve quality of service and minimize collision rate [Farag, ¶0427].
Regarding Claim 7, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU and LU do not explicitly teach a sum of time lengths of the plurality of intervals is smaller than or equal to packet delay budget (PDB) related to the MAC PDU.
However, in the analogous art, Farag explicitly discloses a sum of time lengths of the plurality of intervals is smaller than or equal to packet delay budget (PDB) related to the MAC PDU (Farag, ¶0456, the resource selection window shifts in time to larger time values, within the packet delay budget - examiner interprets being within the PDB to correspond to being “smaller or equal to PDB”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine LIU’s SL DRX power saving mechanisms in sidelink and LU’s resource selection method and a device for use in sidelink communication with Farag’s resource selection method for sidelink. The motivation would be to improve quality of service and minimize collision rate [Farag, ¶0427].
Regarding Claim 8, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU further teaches a sum of a plurality of ratios related to the plurality of intervals is greater than or equal to an entire threshold ratio related to the selection window (LIU, ¶0282, the target quantity may be obtained from the second ratio and third ratio by summation, maximation, minimization, averaging or weighted summation to obtain the final target quantity; [and] ¶0300 illustrates the formula/expression to calculate the final target quantity – summation and the ratio/proportion 1 + ratio proportion 2 – combined overall quantity; adjustment of thresholds 0275-0277; 0293-0296; see also ¶0303 summation may be performed on the two calculation results or the two calculation results may be respectively used to determine resource selection and/or transmission parameters of the active and inactive parts, for example, corresponding to different channel occupancy ratio (CR) limits and/or transmission parameter configurations).
Regarding Claim 11, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU further teaches determining, by the first device, a third available resource set that causes a third ratio related to a third interval to be met, wherein the transmission resource is selected from the first available resource set, the second available resource set, and the third available resource set (LIU, ¶0282, determining a third ratio based on the third monitoring result; and/or the terminal may calculate a ratio between a quantity of resources whose third monitoring results are higher or lower than a twelfth preset threshold or a quantity of resources satisfying a relationship with the third monitoring results such as being within a threshold range and a quantity of resources in the measurement window, to obtain the third ratio), and
wherein the transmission resource is selected to preferentially include at least one resource in the first available resource set (LIU, ¶0095 a quantity of resources included in the activity time is greater than or equal to a second preset value, and/or a quantity of resources included in the inactivity time in the target configuration is less than a third preset value).
Regarding Claim 12, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 11.
LIU further teaches the second interval includes a second active time extended based on a transmission performed within the first interval, and wherein the third interval includes a third active time extended based on a transmission performed within the second interval (LIU, ¶0044, the active time may include at least one of the following: on duration, a runtime when the inactivity timer runs, a runtime when the retransmission timer runs (interpreted to correspond to “active time extended”).
Regarding Claim 13, LIU and LU and Farag teach Claim 1.
LIU further teaches the first available resource set and the second available resource set are transferred from a physical layer of the first device to a MAC layer of the first device (LIU, ¶0168, ¶0217, the preset resource pool is a resource pool in which a first object that triggers target quantity determining and/or triggers target monitoring is located. The first object may include at least one of the following: a service, a data packet, a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU), data, and a transport block (TB)).
Regarding Claim 14, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 1 and is rejected based on same rationales of Claim 1, in apparatus form (a terminal, LIU, FIG. 7, terminal 700 comprising: at least one transceiver (radio frequency unit 701); at least one processor (processor 710); and at least one memory (memory 709) connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions).
Regarding Claim 15, the claim discloses similar features of Claim 14 and is rejected based on same rationales of Claim 14 (LIU, FIG. 6, ¶0478, a processing device comprising: at least one processor (LIU, processor 61); and at least one memory (FIG. 6, memory 62) connected to the at least once processor and storing instructions, (LIU , ¶0478 program or instructions executed by the processor)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hoang et al. (US 20230084593 A1): Abstract, ¶0003, a discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanism is introduced in sidelink (SL) transmission to control sending and/or receiving of SL data; ¶0132, dynamic adaption of the sensing window as a function of transmission activity; ¶0139, the WTRU may be (pre-) configured with two sets of RSRP thresholds.
Freda et al. (US 20240163962 A1): Abstract; ¶0130 -disclosed throughout, FIG. 4A, methods for sidelink DRX timers; FIG. 10 a method, implemented by a first WTRU, for a D2D communication between the first WTRU and a second WTRU
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACY L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is 571-270-7694. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:30-5:30. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TRACY L WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/AYMAN A ABAZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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