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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Application # 18692896 filed 03/18/2024. Claims 1-42 canceled. Claims 43-48 are subject to examination.
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.
Claim 43, 45-46, and 48 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (Liu hereafter) (US 20220232625 A1) in view of LI et al. (LI hereafter) (US 20210219268 A1).
Regarding claim 43 and claim 46, Liu teaches, A method performed by a terminal device (Liu; transmitting device 205, Par. 0089), the method comprising:
determining a contention window value for a channel access procedure for sidelink based on a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback corresponding to a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) in a reference duration (Liu; transmitting device 205 may maintain, reduce (e.g., reset), or increase (e.g., double) the contention window size for CCA procedures associated with subsequent transmission(s) based on the feedback response and transmission type, Par. 0089; if groupcast or broadcast transmission types are transmitted in the contention window update reference slot … improve HARQ feedback signaling, Par. 0087; the unicast transmission types in the contention window reference slot, Par. 0099; transmission ( e.g., the physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH)), Par. 0085), in accordance with a determination of whether the PSSCH is for a unicast sidelink transmission or a groupcast sidelink transmission (Liu; transmission type (e.g., unicast, broadcast, connectionless groupcast, or connection-based groupcast), Par. 0089), wherein the reference duration is a duration where at least one PSSCH with the HARQ feedback comprising ACK or NACK is transmitted (Liu; Transmitting device 205 may monitor the same resource for the feedback message(s) (e.g., a single PSFCH resource) or different resources for the feedback message(s) (e.g., separate PSFCH resources) depending on the transmission type, Par. 0089; A/N feedback is received in the known, associated, or otherwise corresponding PSFCH resources, Par. 0101 [Note that reference duration is interpreted as the duration in association with the reference slot that includes PSSCH and corresponding HARQ]); and
transmitting a sidelink transmission using the channel access procedure (Liu; CCA procedures associated with subsequent transmission(s), Par. 0089).
Although Liu teaches PSFCH resource to send A/N feedback, but failed to explicitly show the reference duration. However, in the same field of endeavor, LI teaches in Fig. 11 that slot/subframe contains PSSCH and HARQ.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Liu to include the use of slot/subframe structure as taught by LI in order to include PSSCH and corresponding HARQ resources (LI; Fig. 11).
Specifically for claim 46, Liu teaches, A terminal device, comprising a processor configured to (Liu; transmitting device 205, Par. 0089).
Regarding claim 45 and claim 48, Liu-LI teaches, The method of claim 43 and The terminal device of claim 46 respectively, wherein the PSSCH is for the unicast sidelink transmission or the groupcast sidelink transmission is indicated by a sidelink control information (SCI) (Liu; NACK feedback may be used to indicate that the PSSCH following that SCI was not successfully decoded, Par. 0099 & LI; a PSSCH pointed by a SA-SCI specifically to the UE (e.g. using the UE's group member ID), Par. 0201).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Liu to include the use of SCI using member ID as taught by LI in order to unicast PSSCH (LI; Par. 0201).
Claim 44 and 47 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu-LI and in further view of SUN et al. (SUN hereafter) (US 20230146161 A1).
Regarding claim 44 and claim 47, Liu-LI teaches, The method of claim 43 and The terminal device of claim 46 respectively, wherein the reference duration starts from beginning of channel occupancy including a sidelink transmission until end of a starting slot where the at least one PSSCH is transmitted (Liu; Generally ... the contention window adjustment for ... (e.g., a full CCA procedure) may be based on the reference slot (e.g., usually the first slot of the channel occupancy time (COT)), Par. 0086 & LI; Fig. 11).
Liu-LI fail to explicitly teach,
channel occupancy initiated by the terminal device.
However, in the same field of endeavor, SUN teaches,
channel occupancy initiated by the terminal device (SUN; After acquiring the COT, the first UE may transmit a sidelink data via a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) ... The UE that acquires the COT may be referred to as an initiating UE, Par. 0033).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Liu-LI to include the use of COT as taught by SUN in order to transmit PSSCH (SUN; Par. 0033).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Reference Ding et al. (US 20230421308 A1) teaches contention window size adjustment for unicast, groupcast for sidelink in Par. 0103 and 0229.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHARMIN CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)272-6419. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am - 5:00 pm.
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/SHARMIN CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416
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