DETAILED ACTION
The office action is in response to the application filed received on Feb. 14, 2024.
The Oath was received on Feb. 14, 2024.
Claims 16-29 are pending in this application, based on the amended claims on March 19, 2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on Feb. 14, 2024 and Nov. 17, 2024 have been considered by the examiner.
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 16-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yisheng Xue et. al. (USPub. No.: US 20220256539 A1, hereinafter “Xue”).
Regarding claim 16, Xue teaches that A method performed by a User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: determining a gap for a sidelink transmission in a channel occupancy time (COT); and performing a sidelink transmission in the COT based on the gap (Xue, in Paragraph [0039]-[0040], teaches that the mechanism in the art is provided for COT aware autonomous sidelink sensing over a shared radio frequency band (e.g., in a shared spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum). The UE determines whether the channel-access gap is available for a first channel access type (e.g., a type 1 LBT (Listen-before-talk)) or a second channel access type (e.g., a type 2 LBT) to determine the availability of the channel-access gap, where a type 1 LBT is similar to a category 4 (CAT4) LBT including a countdown (a random backoff procedure) and a type 2 LBT is similar to a category 2 (CAT2) LBT with no countdown. A channel-access gap available via a type 2 LBT (e.g., the second channel access type) may be a channel access gap that is partially utilized and/or reserved by another UE. Then, a first UE may contend for a channel occupancy time (COT) in a channel, upon winning the contention, the first UE can transmit in the channel during the COT and may also share the COT with other UEs by transmitting a COT sharing indicator. The UE may further perform post extension to transmit over a portion of the channel-access gap, reducing an idle interval on the channel.)
Regarding claim 17, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 16, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the sidelink transmission is performed based on at least one sidelink resource in a sidelink burst (Xue, in Paragraph [0040], teaches that for the sidelink transmission, the UE may perform a burst transmission of two or more data blocks (e.g., transport blocks (TBs)) over a first resource, the portion of the channel-access gap following the first resource, and a second resource in a slot consecutive to the first resource (e.g., following the channel-access gap). The remaining portion of the channel-access gap may be available to a second UE to perform the type 2 LBT. The second UE may thus share the first UE's COT via a type 2 LBT in the channel-access gap.)
Regarding claim 18, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 17, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the at least one sidelink resource is related to at least one of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (Xue, in Figs. 2, 3A, and 3B and in Paragraphs [0067]-[0068], teaches that sidelink communication can be communicated over a PSCCH and a PSSCH. For instance, the PSCCH may carry SCI (Sidelink Control Information) and the PSSCH may carry SCI and/or sidelink data. Each PSCCH is associated with a corresponding PSSCH, where SCI in a PSCCH may carry reservation and/or scheduling information for sidelink data transmission in the associated PSSCH. SCI may also carry information to reserve future resources (e.g., up to about two future PSSCH for retransmissions with HARQ). A transmitting sidelink UE 115 may indicate SCI in two stages. In a first-stage SCI, the UE 115 may transmit SCI in PSCCH carrying information for resource allocation and decoding a second-stage SCI. The first stage SCI may include at least one of a priority, PSSCH resource assignment, resource reservation period (if enabled), PSSCH DMRS pattern (if more than one pattern is configured), a second-stage SCI format (e.g., size of second-stage SCI), an amount of resources for the second-stage SCI, a number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port(s), a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), etc. In a second stage SCI, the UE 115 may transmit SCI in PSSCH carrying information for decoding the PSSCH. The second-stage SCI may include a -bit L1 destination identifier (ID), an 8-bit L1 source ID, a HARQ process ID, a new data indicator (NDI), a redundancy version (RV), etc. Sidelink communication can also be communicated over a physical sidelink feedback control channel (PSFCH), which indicates an acknowledgement (ACK)-negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a previously transmitted PSSCH. Thus, the sidelink transmitting UE 115 may randomly select a resource from the candidate resources and transmit a sidelink transmission (e.g., including SCI over a PSCCH and/or data over a PSSCH) using the selected resource.)
Regarding claim 19, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 16, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the determining of the gap for the sidelink transmission in the COT includes: determining at least one of a number, a length, or a position of the gap for the sidelink transmission in the COT (Xue, in Fig. 4 and in Paragraphs [0040] and [0092], teaches that the UE determines whether the channel-access gap is available for a first channel access type (e.g., a type 1 LBT) or a second channel access type (e.g., a type 2 LBT) to determine the availability of the channel-access gap. Further, in FIG. 4, three types of channel-access gap availability are shown with respect to a first UE 215. Namely, a first channel-access gap 454a is shown as completely available, a second channel-access gap 454b is shown as having a reservation 460 for a second UE 215, and a third channel-access gap 454c is shown as partially available. The first-channel-access gap 454a may be available for CP extension and/or a type 1 LBT by the first UE, the second channel-access gap 454b may be unavailable for an LBT by the first UE, and the third channel-access gap may be available for a type 2 LBT by the first UE. In addition, the reservation 460 of a channel-access gap may reserve a particular duration of the channel-access gap 454, such as available with a 25 µs or greater. In some aspects, the duration 458 of the channel-access gap 454 may vary based on a network, and in some aspects, the reservation 460 may correspond to a reservation of the entire duration 458 of the channel-access gap. Further detail description for the sidelink transmission on COT is explained in Paragraphs [0093]-[0096]. With the first channel-access gap 454a, the first sidelink UE 215 may identify the resource 452 R1 as being preceded by a channel-access gap that is available (e.g., not reserved). If the resource 452 R1 is not blocked by an ongoing COT, nor another reservation in the same slot, the first sidelink UE may access the resource 452 R1, as well as the first channel-access gap 454a. With respect to the second channel-access gap 454b, the first sidelink UE 215 may sense (e.g., detect) a reservation 460 of the second channel-access gap 454b corresponding to another sidelink UE 215 (e.g., the second sidelink UE 215). In some cases, the second sidelink UE 215 may reserve the channel-access gap 454b to perform a type 1 LBT to contend for a COT before using the resource 452 R4 to perform a transmission. If the second sidelink UE 215 is positioned such that the second sidelink UE 215 is in the LBT ED range of the first sidelink UE 215, the first sidelink UE 215 may sense the reservation 460 of the channel-access gap 454b. Accordingly, the first sidelink UE may determine that the resource 452 R3 may be accessed if the first sidelink UE honors the reservation 460 by leaving a gap preceding the resource 452 R3. The third channel-access gap 454c illustrates an example of a channel-access gap 454c that is partially available to the first sidelink UE 215. In particular, the resource 452 R5 and the resource 452 R6 are reserved for a continuous transmission (e.g., a burst transmission) by another sidelink UE 215 (e.g., a fourth sidelink UE 215). In some aspects, the fourth sidelink UE 215 may share a COT associated with the burst transmission with other UEs (e.g., the first UE 215). For instance, the fourth UE 215 may contend for a COT in a channel. The fourth UE 215 may select and reserve the resource 452 R5 based on the channel-access gap 454 preceding the resource 452 R5 having an available (e.g., not reserved) duration satisfying a threshold (e.g., ≥25 µs). Thus, the UE determine the gap type or the gap and also determine its duration (length), number, or position based on the gap type.)
Regarding claim 20, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 16, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the COT is shared with at least one of a base station or at least one other UE (Xue, in Paragraph [0040], teaches that a channel-access gap available via a type 2 LBT (e.g., the second channel access type) may be a channel-access gap that is partially utilized and/or reserved by another UE. For instance, a first UE may contend for a channel occupancy time (COT) in a channel, upon winning the contention, the first UE can transmit in the channel during the COT and may also share the COT with other UEs by transmitting a COT sharing indicator.)
Regarding claim 21, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 20, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that further comprising: initializing the COT; and transmitting, to the at least one of the base station or the at least one other UE, information on the COT (Xue, in Fig. 10A and in Paragraph [0143], teaches that the first UE 215 may transmit a COT-structure indicator (COT-SI) at the beginning of the COT 1070, and the COT-SI may indicate COT sharing information, such as a remaining duration in the COT 1070 for sharing with another sidelink UE. By transmitting the COT-SI in the first resource 1052a, the third UE 215 U3 may, based on monitoring for the COT-SI, determine that the first UE 215 U1 is sharing its COT 1070. Accordingly, the third UE 215 U3 may share the COT 1070 by transmitting over one or more resources 1052 included in the COT 1070. For instance, the third UE 215 U3 may transmit over a fourth resource 1052d and a fifth resource 1052e within the COT 1070 based on determining that the COT 1070 is available for sharing. Thus, at the beginning of the COT, the UE transmits the information (COT-SI) to another UE for sharing.)
Regarding claim 22, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 20, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that further comprising: receiving, from the at least one of the base station or the at least one other UE, information on the COT (Xue, in Paragraph [0066], teaches that An LBT mode may be a category 4 (CAT4) LBT or a category 2 (CAT2) LBT. A CAT2 LBT refers to an LBT without a random backoff period. A CAT 4 LBT refers to an LBT with a random backoff and a variable contention window (CW). A serving BS 105 may perform a CAT4 LBT to acquire a COT for communication with a UE. Additionally, the BS 105 may transmit a COT indication at the beginning of the COT, to indicate a duration of the COT and/or one or more sub bands where the COT is. The serving BS 105 may share the COT with a UE 115. To share the BS 105's COT, the UE may perform a CAT2 LBT within the BS 105's COT. Upon passing the CAT2 LBT, the UE may transmit a UL transmission within the BS 105's COT. Thus, the UE receives the COT indication information at the beginning of the COT from the BS that indicates a duration of the COT and/or one or more sub bands where the COT is to share the BS’s COT.)
Regarding claim 23, Xue teaches that A User Equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver; and a controller coupled with the transceiver and configured to: (Xue, in Fig. 12 and in Paragraphs [0154]-[0155], teaches that as shown the block diagram in Fig. 12, the UE 1200 may include a processor 1202, a memory 1204, an COT aware sidelink sensing module 1208, a transceiver 1210 including a modem subsystem 1212 and a radio frequency (RF) unit 1214, and one or more antennas 1216. The processor 1202 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a controller, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) device, another hardware device, a firmware device, or any combination thereof configured to perform the operations.) determine a gap for a sidelink transmission in a channel occupancy time (COT); and perform a sidelink transmission in the COT based on the gap (Xue, in Paragraph [0039]-[0040], teaches that the mechanism in the art is provided for COT aware autonomous sidelink sensing over a shared radio frequency band (e.g., in a shared spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum). The UE determines whether the channel-access gap is available for a first channel access type (e.g., a type 1 LBT (Listen-before-talk)) or a second channel access type (e.g., a type 2 LBT) to determine the availability of the channel-access gap, where a type 1 LBT is similar to a category 4 (CAT4) LBT including a countdown (a random backoff procedure) and a type 2 LBT is similar to a category 2 (CAT2) LBT with no countdown. A channel-access gap available via a type 2 LBT (e.g., the second channel access type) may be a channel access gap that is partially utilized and/or reserved by another UE. Then, a first UE may contend for a channel occupancy time (COT) in a channel, upon winning the contention, the first UE can transmit in the channel during the COT and may also share the COT with other UEs by transmitting a COT sharing indicator. The UE may further perform post extension to transmit over a portion of the channel-access gap, reducing an idle interval on the channel.)
Regarding claim 24, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 23, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the sidelink transmission is performed based on at least one sidelink resource in a sidelink burst (Xue, in Paragraph [0040], teaches that for the sidelink transmission, the UE may perform a burst transmission of two or more data blocks (e.g., transport blocks (TBs)) over a first resource, the portion of the channel-access gap following the first resource, and a second resource in a slot consecutive to the first resource (e.g., following the channel-access gap). The remaining portion of the channel-access gap may be available to a second UE to perform the type 2 LBT. The second UE may thus share the first UE's COT via a type 2 LBT in the channel-access gap.)
Regarding claim 25, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 24, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the at least one sidelink resource is related to at least one of a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) (Xue, in Figs. 2, 3A, and 3B and in Paragraphs [0067]-[0068], teaches that sidelink communication can be communicated over a PSCCH and a PSSCH. For instance, the PSCCH may carry SCI (Sidelink Control Information) and the PSSCH may carry SCI and/or sidelink data. Each PSCCH is associated with a corresponding PSSCH, where SCI in a PSCCH may carry reservation and/or scheduling information for sidelink data transmission in the associated PSSCH. SCI may also carry information to reserve future resources (e.g., up to about two future PSSCH for retransmissions with HARQ). A transmitting sidelink UE 115 may indicate SCI in two stages. In a first-stage SCI, the UE 115 may transmit SCI in PSCCH carrying information for resource allocation and decoding a second-stage SCI. The first stage SCI may include at least one of a priority, PSSCH resource assignment, resource reservation period (if enabled), PSSCH DMRS pattern (if more than one pattern is configured), a second-stage SCI format (e.g., size of second-stage SCI), an amount of resources for the second-stage SCI, a number of PSSCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS) port(s), a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), etc. In a second stage SCI, the UE 115 may transmit SCI in PSSCH carrying information for decoding the PSSCH. The second-stage SCI may include a -bit L1 destination identifier (ID), an 8-bit L1 source ID, a HARQ process ID, a new data indicator (NDI), a redundancy version (RV), etc. Sidelink communication can also be communicated over a physical sidelink feedback control channel (PSFCH), which indicates an acknowledgement (ACK)-negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a previously transmitted PSSCH. Thus, the sidelink transmitting UE 115 may randomly select a resource from the candidate resources and transmit a sidelink transmission (e.g., including SCI over a PSCCH and/or data over a PSSCH) using the selected resource.)
Regarding claim 26, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 23, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the controller is configured to: determine at least one of a number, a length, or a position of the gap for the sidelink transmission in the COT (Xue, in Fig. 4 and in Paragraphs [0040] and [0092], teaches that the UE determines whether the channel-access gap is available for a first channel access type (e.g., a type 1 LBT) or a second channel access type (e.g., a type 2 LBT) to determine the availability of the channel-access gap. Further, in FIG. 4, three types of channel-access gap availability are shown with respect to a first UE 215. Namely, a first channel-access gap 454a is shown as completely available, a second channel-access gap 454b is shown as having a reservation 460 for a second UE 215, and a third channel-access gap 454c is shown as partially available. The first-channel-access gap 454a may be available for CP extension and/or a type 1 LBT by the first UE, the second channel-access gap 454b may be unavailable for an LBT by the first UE, and the third channel-access gap may be available for a type 2 LBT by the first UE. In addition, the reservation 460 of a channel-access gap may reserve a particular duration of the channel-access gap 454, such as available with a 25 µs or greater. In some aspects, the duration 458 of the channel-access gap 454 may vary based on a network, and in some aspects, the reservation 460 may correspond to a reservation of the entire duration 458 of the channel-access gap. Further detail description for the sidelink transmission on COT is explained in Paragraphs [0093]-[0096]. With the first channel-access gap 454a, the first sidelink UE 215 may identify the resource 452 R1 as being preceded by a channel-access gap that is available (e.g., not reserved). If the resource 452 R1 is not blocked by an ongoing COT, nor another reservation in the same slot, the first sidelink UE may access the resource 452 R1, as well as the first channel-access gap 454a. With respect to the second channel-access gap 454b, the first sidelink UE 215 may sense (e.g., detect) a reservation 460 of the second channel-access gap 454b corresponding to another sidelink UE 215 (e.g., the second sidelink UE 215). In some cases, the second sidelink UE 215 may reserve the channel-access gap 454b to perform a type 1 LBT to contend for a COT before using the resource 452 R4 to perform a transmission. If the second sidelink UE 215 is positioned such that the second sidelink UE 215 is in the LBT ED range of the first sidelink UE 215, the first sidelink UE 215 may sense the reservation 460 of the channel-access gap 454b. Accordingly, the first sidelink UE may determine that the resource 452 R3 may be accessed if the first sidelink UE honors the reservation 460 by leaving a gap preceding the resource 452 R3. The third channel-access gap 454c illustrates an example of a channel-access gap 454c that is partially available to the first sidelink UE 215. In particular, the resource 452 R5 and the resource 452 R6 are reserved for a continuous transmission (e.g., a burst transmission) by another sidelink UE 215 (e.g., a fourth sidelink UE 215). In some aspects, the fourth sidelink UE 215 may share a COT associated with the burst transmission with other UEs (e.g., the first UE 215). For instance, the fourth UE 215 may contend for a COT in a channel. The fourth UE 215 may select and reserve the resource 452 R5 based on the channel-access gap 454 preceding the resource 452 R5 having an available (e.g., not reserved) duration satisfying a threshold (e.g., ≥25 µs). Thus, the UE determine the gap type or the gap and also determine its duration (length), number, or position based on the gap type.)
Regarding claim 27, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 23, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the COT is shared with at least one of a base station or at least one other UE (Xue, in Paragraph [0040], teaches that a channel-access gap available via a type 2 LBT (e.g., the second channel access type) may be a channel-access gap that is partially utilized and/or reserved by another UE. For instance, a first UE may contend for a channel occupancy time (COT) in a channel, upon winning the contention, the first UE can transmit in the channel during the COT and may also share the COT with other UEs by transmitting a COT sharing indicator.)
Regarding claim 28, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 23, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the controller is further configured to: initialize the COT; and transmit, to the at least one of the base station or the at least one other UE, information on the COT (Xue, in Fig. 10A and in Paragraph [0143], teaches that the first UE 215 may transmit a COT-structure indicator (COT-SI) at the beginning of the COT 1070, and the COT-SI may indicate COT sharing information, such as a remaining duration in the COT 1070 for sharing with another sidelink UE. By transmitting the COT-SI in the first resource 1052a, the third UE 215 U3 may, based on monitoring for the COT-SI, determine that the first UE 215 U1 is sharing its COT 1070. Accordingly, the third UE 215 U3 may share the COT 1070 by transmitting over one or more resources 1052 included in the COT 1070. For instance, the third UE 215 U3 may transmit over a fourth resource 1052d and a fifth resource 1052e within the COT 1070 based on determining that the COT 1070 is available for sharing. Thus, at the beginning of the COT, the UE transmits the information (COT-SI) to another UE for sharing.)
Regarding claim 29, Xue teaches the features defined in the claim 23, -refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Xue further teaches that wherein the controller is further configured to: receive, from the at least one of the base station or the at least one other UE, information on the COT (Xue, in Paragraph [0066], teaches that An LBT mode may be a category 4 (CAT4) LBT or a category 2 (CAT2) LBT. A CAT2 LBT refers to an LBT without a random backoff period. A CAT 4 LBT refers to an LBT with a random backoff and a variable contention window (CW). A serving BS 105 may perform a CAT4 LBT to acquire a COT for communication with a UE. Additionally, the BS 105 may transmit a COT indication at the beginning of the COT, to indicate a duration of the COT and/or one or more sub bands where the COT is. The serving BS 105 may share the COT with a UE 115. To share the BS 105's COT, the UE may perform a CAT2 LBT within the BS 105's COT. Upon passing the CAT2 LBT, the UE may transmit a UL transmission within the BS 105's COT. Thus, the UE receives the COT indication information at the beginning of the COT from the BS that indicates a duration of the COT and/or one or more sub bands where the COT is to share the BS’s COT.)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Stelios Stefanatos et. al. (USPub. No: US 20240008085 A1) which explains the sidelink communication based on the gap operation and the COT.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAEYOUNG KWAK whose telephone number is (703)756-1768. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9 AM -5 PM.
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/JAEYOUNG KWAK/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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