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.
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 nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 2 and 5-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeo et al. (EP 3823406 A1) in view of Si (US 2023/0007674) in view of Panteleev et al. (US 2021/0306828).
Regarding claim 1, Yeo et al. disclose a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE),comprising:
identifying, in a radio frequency spectrum band, a first resource for a sidelink synchronization signal block and a second resource for a sidelink message, the first resource overlapping in time with the second resource (Paragraph 71, the terminal may determine whether simultaneous [overlapping] transmission or reception of LTE- and NR-based sidelink signals is activated…means that a particular time point belongs to a resource pool for an LTE-based sidelink operation, and also belongs to a resource pool for an NR-based sidelink operation…may be understood that a transmission operation is performed at the same time point in an absolute time, in consideration of overlapping symbols; Paragraph 72, simultaneous transmission or reception of LTE- and NR-based sidelink signals is described…transmission of an LTE signal (an LTE sidelink signal, an LTE sidelink synchronization signal, or an LTE discovery signal) and an NR signal (an NR sidelink signal, an NR sidelink synchronization signal, or an NR discovery signal); Paragraph 76, sidelink synchronization signaling included in simultaneous transmissions of LTE-based sidelink and NR-based sidelink), and a first starting time of the first resource occurring before a second starting time of the second resource (Paragraph 71, In the disclosure, the simultaneous transmission may mean transmission in the same OFDM symbol or transmission in the same slot [may mean different starting times while being within the same symbol/slot]); and
the sidelink synchronization signal block being prioritized over the sidelink message (Paragraph 74, transport block prioritization; Paragraph 76, when a synchronization signal (a primary sidelink synchronization signal (PSSS) and a secondary sidelink synchronization signal (SSSS), etc.) or a discovery signal of the LTE sidelink and a synchronization signal, a broadcasting signal, or a discovery signal of the NR sidelink need to be simultaneously transmitted, the terminal may prioritize the signal (the synchronization signal or the discovery signal) of the LTE sidelink over that of the NR sidelink and process the signal of the LTE sidelink).
Yeo et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Si: transmitting the sidelink synchronization signal block on the first resource based at least in part on a channel access procedure indicating that the radio frequency spectrum band is available for transmission (Si, Abstract, a UE…determining a set of candidate slots for transmitting the S-SS/PSBCH blocks in the transmission window; performing channel access procedures before the set of candidate slots for transmitting the S-SS/PSBCH blocks in the transmission window; and transmitting, to another UE, the S-SS/PSBCH blocks over a sidelink channel with shared channel access, upon successfully performing the channel access procedures).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yeo et al. with the cited disclosure from Si in order to improve transmission opportunities that mitigate the transmission failure due to busy channel access procedure (Si, Paragraph 87).
Yeo et al. in view of Si do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Panteleev et al.: performing the channel access procedure based at least in part on the prioritization (Panteleev et al., Paragraph 44, channel access procedure may be defined based on identification of a set of least congested PSCCH and PSSCH resources for a given priority of transmission. The set of least congested resources may be identified based on multi-step channel sensing procedures that may depend on multiple higher layer configured parameters, traffic/service types, traffic/service priorities, congestion control functions).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Yeo et al. and Si with the cited disclosure from Panteleev et al. in order to determine and select resources for sidelink transmission (Panteleev et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Yeo et al. disclose receiving an indication of the first resource and the second resource, wherein identifying the first resource and the second resource is based at least in part on receiving the indication of the first resource and the second resource (Paragraph 118, the terminal may receive a configuration of a resource pool [includes both first and second resources]...The resource pool may be a resource pool for sidelink transmission, may be a resource pool for sidelink reception, or may be a resource pool for both sidelink transmission and reception; Paragraph 119, A resource of a resource pool may be determined according to frequency and time resource information, and the configuration relating to the transmission or reception operation performed in the resource pool may be provided to the terminal according to the resource pool).
Regarding claim 5, Yeo et al. disclose refraining from transmitting the sidelink message over the second resource based at least in part on the first starting time occurring before the second starting time (Paragraph 82, a terminal according to an embodiment of the disclosure may determine whether to perform NR sidelink transmission in slot n only before a particular time point (Tp) of slot n when LTE sidelink transmission is already determined in slot n before NR sidelink transmission is determined. In addition, when the LTE sidelink transmission is already determined in slot n, and a start time of slot n is Tn, during Tn to Tp, no determination [refraining] on whether to transmit the NR sidelink is allowed in slot n and no determination [refraining] on performing new transmission is allowed in slot n).
Regarding claim 6, Yeo et al. disclose wherein the sidelink message comprises a sidelink shared channel transmission or a sidelink control channel transmission (Paragraph 73, terminal is to simultaneously transmit an LTE-PSCCH or an LTE-PSSCH and an NR-PSCCH or an NR PSSCH, the terminal may transmit only the LTE-PSCCH or the LTE-PSSCH, and may not transmit the NR-PSCCH or the NR-PSSCH).
Regarding claim 7, Yeo et al. disclose wherein the first resource and the second resource overlap in frequency (Paragraph 71, simultaneous transmission in consideration of overlapping symbols).
Claim(s) 3 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yeo et al., Si and Panteleev et al. as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Sun et al. (US 2020/0313946).
Regarding claim 3, Yeo et al., Si and Panteleev et al. disclose the claimed invention above as well as performing the channel access procedure before the first starting time of the first resource (Si, Abstract, a UE…determining a set of candidate slots for transmitting the S-SS/PSBCH blocks in the transmission window; performing channel access procedures before the set of candidate slots for transmitting the S-SS/PSBCH blocks in the transmission window; and transmitting, to another UE, the S-SS/PSBCH blocks over a sidelink channel with shared channel access, upon successfully performing the channel access procedures).
Yeo et al., Si and Panteleev et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Huang et al.: transmitting a cyclic prefix extension generated from the sidelink synchronization signal block for a time span from the channel access procedure to the first starting time (Sun et al., Abstract, first wireless communication device communicates, with a second wireless communication device, a cyclic prefix (CP) extension length configuration for providing a gap duration for a listen-before-talk (LBT) associated with a first communication signal. The first wireless communication device communicates, with the second wireless communication device, the first communication signal including a CP extension having a length based on the CP extension length configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Yeo et al., Si and Panteleev et al. with the cited disclosure from Sun et al. in order to reduce the gap duration to a target duration for a certain LBT (Sun et al., Paragraph 72).
Regarding claim 4, Sun et al. disclose wherein transmitting the cyclic prefix extension for the time span is based at least in part on the first starting time of the first resource being unaligned with a boundary of a symbol (Paragraph 77, transmit the first communication signal including a CP extension having a length based on the CP extension length configuration. For example, the first communication includes one or more symbols aligned to a symbol boundary, where a beginning symbol of the one or more symbols is prepended with the CP extension).
Claim(s) 9-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al.
Regarding claim 9, Panteleev et al. disclose a method for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE),comprising:
identifying a time resource in a radio frequency spectrum band (Paragraph 73, time-frequency resource allocation may also include TTI or slot allocation) for performing a channel access procedure (Paragraph 44, channel access procedure may be defined based on identification of a set of least congested PSCCH and PSSCH resources for a given priority of transmission), wherein a first value of a parameter (Paragraph 44, congestion value of the resource) for the channel access procedure is associated with a first priority and a second value of the parameter for the time resource (Paragraph 44, congestion value of the resource) is associated with a second priority (Paragraph 44, priority of transmission…traffic/service priorities…; Paragraph 44, channel access procedure may be defined…for a given priority of transmission…channel sensing procedures that may depend on…traffic/service priorities [priorities indicates first and second priority] [“defined for” and “depend on” indicate association between channel access procedure and transmission/traffic priority]);
performing the channel access procedure for the time resource in accordance with the first value of the parameter (Paragraph 44, congest value of the resource) based at least in part on the UE being associated with the first priority (Paragraph 44, channel access procedure may be defined based on identification of a set of least congested PSCCH and PSSCH resources for a given priority of transmission…The set of least congested resources may be identified based on multi-step channel sensing procedures that may depend on…traffic/service priorities); and
transmitting a sidelink signal block (Paragraph 44, PSCCH, PSSCH, LTE V2V transmission) associated with the first priority based at least in part on the channel access procedure (Paragraph 44, channel access procedure may be defined…for a given priority of transmission) in accordance with the first value of the parameter indicating that the radio frequency spectrum band is available for transmission (Paragraph 44, channel sensing procedures that may depend on…traffic/service priorities; Paragraph 62, corresponding time-frequency resource indicated as congested or available for transmission).
Panteleev et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Yeo et al.: synchronization priority and transmitting a sidelink synchronization signal block (Yeo et al., Paragraph 74, transport block prioritization; Paragraph 76, when a synchronization signal (a primary sidelink synchronization signal (PSSS) and a secondary sidelink synchronization signal (SSSS), etc.) or a discovery signal of the LTE sidelink and a synchronization signal, a broadcasting signal, or a discovery signal of the NR sidelink need to be simultaneously transmitted, the terminal may prioritize the signal (the synchronization signal or the discovery signal) of the LTE sidelink over that of the NR sidelink and process the signal of the LTE sidelink).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention in order to prioritize sidelink communications (Yeo et al., Abstract).
Regarding claim 10, Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al. disclose receiving an indication of the first value of the parameter and the second value of the parameter (Panteleev et al., Paragraph 62, CRSI Option 1 may use a bitmap approach…In such a bitmap, ‘1’ may indicate that the corresponding time-frequency resource is considered least congested, while ‘0’ may indicate that the resource is not available), wherein transmitting the sidelink synchronization signal block is based at least in part on receiving the indication (Panteleev et al., Paragraph 62, The described CRSI may be a function of sidelink transmission priority and be indicated per each priority in a set; Yeo et al., Paragraphs 74 and 76, prioritization of sidelink synchronization signaling).
Regarding claim 11, Panteleev et al. disclose wherein the first value of the parameter corresponds to a first interval in the time resource for performing the channel access procedure and the second value of the parameter corresponds to a second interval in the time resource for performing the channel access procedure (Paragraphs 62 and 73, TTIs representing first and second intervals).
Regarding claim 12, Yeo et al. disclose wherein transmitting the sidelink synchronization signal block of the first synchronization priority is based at least in part on the first interval occurring before the second interval (Paragraph 82, a terminal according to an embodiment of the disclosure may determine whether to perform NR sidelink transmission in slot n only before a particular time point (Tp) of slot n when LTE sidelink transmission is already determined in slot n before NR sidelink transmission is determined. In addition, when the LTE sidelink transmission is already determined in slot n, and a start time of slot n is Tn, during Tn to Tp, no determination on whether to transmit the NR sidelink is allowed in slot n and no determination on performing new transmission is allowed in slot n).
Regarding claim 13, Panteleev et al. disclose wherein the first value of the parameter corresponds to a first energy detection threshold for the channel access procedure and the second value of the parameter corresponds to a second energy detection threshold (Paragraph 53, the resource selection procedure…may be adjusted to select less congested PSCCH resources by changing selection characteristics such as Reference Signal Receive Power (RSRP) thresholds [first and second energy detection thresholds], Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) thresholds [first and second energy detection thresholds], transmission priority, number of occupied resources, if possible, etc.).
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al. as applied to claim 13 above, and further in view of Lee et al. (US 2021/0204307).
Regarding claim 14, Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al. disclose the claimed invention above but do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Lee et al.: wherein transmitting the sidelink synchronization signal block of the first synchronization priority (Lee et al.: Figure 17, sidelink transmission priority for LTE SL vs NR SL; Paragraph 152, partly or fully overlapping; Paragraph 161, sidelink synchronization having a priority) is based at least in part on the first energy detection threshold being higher than the second energy detection threshold (Lee et al., Paragraph 105, resource election for sidelink transmission; Paragraph 120-124, resource selection procedure using the result of sensing procedure which uses RSRP/RSSI measurement; Paragraph 123, 138, RSRP and RSSI measurements for subchannels having thresholds for resource selection).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Panteleev et al. and Yeo et al. with the cited disclosure from Lee et al. in order to allow for efficient coexistence of NR sidelink and LTE sidelink (Lee et al., Paragraph 15).
Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al. as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Chae et al. (US 2021/0051500).
Regarding claim 15, Panteleev et al. in view of Yeo et al. disclose the claimed invention above but not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Chae et al.: wherein the first synchronization priority and the second synchronization priority are each associated with a different synchronization source of a plurality of synchronization sources, the first synchronization priority being higher than the second synchronization priority (Chae et al., Paragraph 225, Sidelink synchronization sources may be GNSS, gNB, eNB, or NR UE. Each sidelink synchronization source may be associated with a synchronization priority level in which the priority order may be (pre)configured).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Panteleev et al. and Yeo et al. with the cited disclosure from Chae et al. in order to further provide synchronization on the sidelink (Chae et al., Paragraph 225).
Regarding claims 16-22, the functional limitations are rejected for the same reasons set forth in rejecting claims 1-7 above. Primary prior art reference Yeo et al. additionally discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Figure 18 and paragraphs 71-76, terminal), comprising: a processor (Figure 18, terminal processor 18-02); memory coupled with the processor (Paragraph 18, memory); and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to perform the functional limitations (Paragraph 18, memory storing instructions executed by the processor).
Regarding claims 24-30, the functional limitations are rejected for the same reasons set forth in rejecting claims 9-15 above. Primary prior art reference Panteleev et al. additionally disclose an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (Figure 2, 200), comprising: a processor (Figure 2, processor 202); memory coupled with the processor (Figure 2, memory/storage devices 204, 206, 216 coupled to processor 202 via link 208); and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to perform the functional limitations (Figure 2 and paragraph 23, software 224 stored and executed by processor 202).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 and 23 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: regarding claims 8 and 23, the prior art does not disclose or adequately suggest a second channel access procedure during a first portion of the firs resource for the sidelink synchronization signal block that is before the second resource based on being prioritized over the sidelink message, and transmitting the sidelink message on the second resource during the second time interval based on the band being available for transmission.
Conclusion
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
February 6, 2026