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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CHINA 202111072893.7, filed on 09/14/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted is being considered by the examiner.
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 – 3, 6, 9 – 12, 15, 18 – 19 and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. WO 2020/164009 A1 (listed in applicant submitted IDS and listed as D2 in EPO search report), hereinafter Wang in view of Aminaka US20180115873A1 (listed in applicant submitted IDS and listed as D1 in EPO search report), hereinafter Aminaka.
Regarding claim 1, Wang teaches an information processing method applied to a terminal device, the method comprising:
(Wang: Summary, Fig. 12 and page 18 1st paragraph communication node 1200 can include a user equipment (UE) , a mobile device, or a multimedia gateway. The network node 1200 can include a base station, a RAN node, a gNB, a master node in a dual-connectivity system, a secondary node in a dual-connectivity system, or a network element such as a distributed unit (DU) or a centralized unit (CU) . The communication or network node 1200 includes at least one processor 1210 and a memory 1205 having instructions stored thereupon. The instructions upon execution by the processor 1210 configure the communication or network node 1200 to perform the operations)
sending indication information to a network device, wherein the indication information is used to (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message)
indicate relationship between a sidelink destination identity and a sidelink SL transmission type, or
relationship between service type information and an SL transmission type,
(Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink SL transmission type”) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type, which corresponds to claim limitation service type information” and/or destination identity, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink destination identity”)
and the SL transmission type
(Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group))
Wang does not explicitly teaches: SL transmission type is SL discovery or SL communication.
Aminaka from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches: SL transmission type is SL discovery or SL communication.
(Aminaka: para. [0048 & 0026 & 0051] and FIG. 1 UEs 1 and 2 are radio terminals capable of performing ProSe (i.e., ProSe-enabled UEs) and are able to perform sidelink communication on an inter-terminal direct interface (i.e., PC5 interface or sidelink) 103. The sidelink communication includes at least one of ProSe Direct Discovery (corresponds to claim limitation “SL discovery”) and ProSe Direct Communication (corresponds to claim limitation “SL communication”)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the teaching of Aminaka in the method of Wang. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so for to avoidance of a conflict between a radio resource for a sidelink communication and a radio resource for an intra-cell uplink transmission, intra-cell downlink transmission, or another sidelink communication (Aminaka: para. [0031 & 0026 - 0030]).
Regarding claim 2, Wang and Aminaka teaches the information processing method according to claim 1, wherein one sidelink destination identity in the relationship corresponds to one SL transmission type; and/or
one service type information in the relationship corresponds to one SL transmission type.
(Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink SL transmission type”) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type, which corresponds to claim limitation service type information” and/or destination identity, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink destination identity”)
Regarding claim 3, Wang and Aminaka teaches the information processing method according to claim 1, Wang does not explicitly teaches: wherein the indication information comprises first identification information of the SL transmission type; in a case that the first identification information takes a first value, the first identification information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL discovery; in a case that the first identification information takes a second value, the first identification information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL communication; or, the indication information comprises second identification information of the SL transmission type; in a case that the second identification information appears, the indication information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL discovery; in a case that the second identification information does not appear, the indication information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL communication; or,
the indication information comprises third identification information of the SL transmission type; in a case that the third identification information appears, the indication information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL communication; in a case that the third identification information does not appear, the indication information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL discovery.
Aminaka from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the indication information comprises first identification information of the SL transmission type; in a case that the first identification information takes a first value, the first identification information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL discovery; in a case that the first identification information takes a second value, the first identification information indicates that the SL transmission type is the SL communication
(Aminaka: para. [0051 & 0063 & 0075] UEs 1 and 2 may receive, from the ProSe function entity 5, a message indicating permission for the UEs 1 and 2 to activate (enable) ProSe Direct Discovery or ProSe Direct Communication. The UEs 1 and 2 may receive, from the ProSe function entity 5, configuration information for ProSe Direct Discovery or ProSe Direct Communication in the cell 32. Para. [0063] idelink resource information indicates a first radio resource to be used for the sidelink communication (i.e., at least one of direct discovery and direct communication) between the UEs 1 and 2, an effective period or effective number of times of the first radio resource, or both the first radio resource and the effective period or effective number of times). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the teaching of Aminaka in the method of Wang. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so for to avoidance of a conflict between a radio resource for a sidelink communication and a radio resource for an intra-cell uplink transmission, intra-cell downlink transmission, or another sidelink communication (Aminaka: para. [0031 & 0026 - 0030]).
Regarding claim 6, Wang and Aminaka teaches the information processing method according to claim 3, wherein sending the indication information to the network device comprises:
sending the indication information to the network device by using the first radio resource control RRC information, wherein the first RRC information is sidelink user equipment information SUI, or user equipment assistance information UAI, (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message which corresponds to claim limitation “SUI” or a UE Assistance Information message which corresponds to claim limitation “UAI”. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type and/or destination identity) or other RRC information other than the SUI and the UAI.
Regarding claim 9, Wang and Aminaka teaches the information processing method according to claim 6, wherein in a case that the first RRC information is the UAI, the UAI is further used to request a transmission resource. (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message which corresponds to claim limitation “SUI” or a UE Assistance Information message which corresponds to claim limitation “UAI”. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type and/or destination identity)
Regarding claim 10, Wang teaches an information processing method applied to a network device, the method comprising:
(Wang: Summary, Fig. 12 and page 18 1st paragraph communication node 1200 can include a user equipment (UE) , a mobile device, or a multimedia gateway. The network node 1200 can include a base station, a RAN node, a gNB, a master node in a dual-connectivity system, a secondary node in a dual-connectivity system, or a network element such as a distributed unit (DU) or a centralized unit (CU) . The communication or network node 1200 includes at least one processor 1210 and a memory 1205 having instructions stored thereupon. The instructions upon execution by the processor 1210 configure the communication or network node 1200 to perform the operations)
receiving indication information sent by a terminal device; (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message)
determining a target transmission resource type according to the indication information;
(Wang: page 9 - Fig. 3 and if the DU allocates a mode 1 resource (e.g., a type of dynamically scheduled resource) to the UE, the configuration information can include at least one of the following: SL BWP configuration, SL-V-RNTI, scheduling resource pool information, mapping relationship (s) between (a) logical channel group (LCG) and/or logical channel (LCH) and (b) 5QI, VQI, priority, reliability, PDB, PER, PPPP, PPPR, QFI, and/or communication range, mcs configuration, and/or SR configuration (e.g., mapping relationship (s) between (a) LCG and/or LCH and (b) SR mapping, mapping between (a) SR and (b) 5QI, VQI, priority, reliability, PDB, PER, PPPP, PPPR, QFI, and/or communication range))
wherein the indication information is used to indicate relationship between a sidelink destination identity and a sidelink SL transmission type, or relationship between service type information and an SL transmission type; (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink SL transmission type”) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type, which corresponds to claim limitation service type information” and/or destination identity, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink destination identity”)
the SL transmission type (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group)) is SL discovery or SL communication; and
the target transmission resource type is an SL transmission resource type corresponding to the sidelink destination identity, or an SL transmission resource type corresponding to the service type information. (Wang: page 8 2nd paragraph - sidelink resource request can be a sidelink UE Information message or a UE Assistance Information message. The sidelink resource request can include at least one of the following information: service type, destination identity, frequency of interest, service QoS information (e.g., including PC5 QoS index list, QFI, priority level, reliability level, latency, communication range, 5QI, and/or VQI list) , communication type (e.g., including unicast, groupcast, broadcast, and/or unicast in group), group leader, group member, group information (e.g., including number of group members, identifier of each group member, unicast UE pair in group, and/or unicast UE list) , cross-RAT interest indication, mapping relationship between (a) service type and/or destination identity and (b) Tx profile (e.g., including transport format, protocol version information such as LTE/NR/R14/R15/R16, and/or other information, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink SL transmission type”) , and/or traffic pattern (e.g., periodicity, packet size, timing offset, PC5 QoS index, priority level, and/or logical channel identity) corresponding to individual service type, which corresponds to claim limitation service type information” and/or destination identity, which corresponds to claim limitation “sidelink destination identity”)
Wang does not explicitly teaches: SL transmission type is SL discovery or SL communication.
Aminaka from the same or similar fields of endeavor teaches: SL transmission type is SL discovery or SL communication.
(Aminaka: para. [0048 & 0026 & 0051] and FIG. 1 UEs 1 and 2 are radio terminals capable of performing ProSe (i.e., ProSe-enabled UEs) and are able to perform sidelink communication on an inter-terminal direct interface (i.e., PC5 interface or sidelink) 103. The sidelink communication includes at least one of ProSe Direct Discovery (corresponds to claim limitation “SL discovery”) and ProSe Direct Communication (corresponds to claim limitation “SL communication”)).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the teaching of Aminaka in the method of Wang. One of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so for to avoidance of a conflict between a radio resource for a sidelink communication and a radio resource for an intra-cell uplink transmission, intra-cell downlink transmission, or another sidelink communication (Aminaka: para. [0031 & 0026 - 0030]).
Regarding claims 11-12, 15 and 18, Wang and Aminaka teach all the limitations as discussed in the rejection of claims 2-3, 6 and 9, and therefore method claims 11-12, 15 and 18 are rejected using the same rationales.
Regarding claim 19, Wang teaches a terminal device, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program; (Wang: Summary, Fig. 12 and page 18 1st paragraph communication node 1200 can include a user equipment (UE) , a mobile device, or a multimedia gateway. The network node 1200 can include a base station, a RAN node, a gNB, a master node in a dual-connectivity system, a secondary node in a dual-connectivity system, or a network element such as a distributed unit (DU) or a centralized unit (CU) . The communication or network node 1200 includes at least one processor 1210 and a memory 1205 having instructions stored thereupon. The instructions upon execution by the processor 1210 configure the communication or network node 1200 to perform the operations) and Wang and Aminaka teach all the limitations as discussed in the rejection of claim 1, and therefore apparatus claim 19 is rejected using the same rationales.
Regarding claim 28, Wang teaches a network device, comprising: a memory, a transceiver, and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program; (Wang: Summary, Fig. 12 and page 18 1st paragraph communication node 1200 can include a user equipment (UE) , a mobile device, or a multimedia gateway. The network node 1200 can include a base station, a RAN node, a gNB, a master node in a dual-connectivity system, a secondary node in a dual-connectivity system, or a network element such as a distributed unit (DU) or a centralized unit (CU) . The communication or network node 1200 includes at least one processor 1210 and a memory 1205 having instructions stored thereupon. The instructions upon execution by the processor 1210 configure the communication or network node 1200 to perform the operations) and Wang and Aminaka teach all the limitations as discussed in the rejection of claim 10, and therefore apparatus claim 28 is rejected using the same rationales.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 7-8, 13-14 and 16-17 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please also see PTO-892.
Kung et al. US 20200229198 A1, teaches in para. [0275] Sidelink BSR and Truncated Sidelink BSR MAC control elements consist of one Destination Index field, one LCG ID field and one corresponding Buffer Size field per reported target group.
Park et al. US 20220377720 A1 [0066] and FIG. 3 teaches, application layers of UE-A and UE-B may perform a service discovery. In this instance, the service discovery may include a discovery associated with the type of sidelink communication (unicast, groupcast, or broadcast) that each UE is to perform. Therefore, it is assumed that UE-A and UE-B recognize that the UEs are to perform unicast communication via a service discovery process performed in application layers. Sidelink UEs may obtain information associated with a source identifier (ID) and a destination ID for sidelink communication, via the service discovery process.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WUTCHUNG CHU whose telephone number is (571)272-4064. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Moo R Jeong can be reached at (571) 272-9617. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WUTCHUNG CHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2418