DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. 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. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis 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.
Status of Claims
1. The following is a non-final office action in response to the applicant’s submission received on 10/01/2024.
2. Claims 1 – 20 are currently pending and have been examined.
Foreign Priority/Domestic benefit
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed for Korean Application No. 10-2021-0134092, filed on October 8, 2021.
Domestic benefit is claimed with regards to National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. 371 of International Application No. PCT/KR2022/015217, filed on October 7, 202
Oath/Declaration
1. The applicant’s oath/declaration filed on 04/05/2024 has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Information Disclosure Statement
1. The information disclosure statements filed on 08/14/2024 and 12/02/2025 are in compliance with the provision of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits.
Drawings
1. The applicant’s drawings submitted on 04/05/2024 are acceptable for examination purposes.
Objection to the specification
1. Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure.
The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words. The form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as "means" and "said," should be avoided. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details.
The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, "The disclosure concerns," "The disclosure defined by this invention," "The disclosure describes," etc.
The abstract possesses more than 150 words. Appropriate correction is required
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.
1. Claim(s) 1 – 7, 10, 14 - 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adjakple et al. (US 2024/0172325 A1, herein refer to as D1) in view of Hahn (US 2021/0068189A1, herein refer to as D2) and Chae et al. (US 2021/0377989, herein refer to as D3).
Regarding claim 1, D1 discloses: A method for performing wireless communication by a first device, the method [first sentence of ¶ 0083] comprising:
obtaining sidelink (SL) discontinuous reception (DRX) configuration including information related to an active time of a second device, [¶ 0083: “The first device may be preconfigured with one or more SL DRX group, with a SL DRX group being a group of sidelink communications …with the same SL DRX Active time.”, sidelink communication always involves a second device see ¶ 0081]
wherein the SL DRX configuration includes at least one of information related to a SL DRX cycle or information related to a SL DRX timer, [¶ 0083: “The DRX active time for a SL communication or SL communication resource in a SL DRX group may include the time while the drx-onDurationTimerSL, or drx-InactivityTimerSL, configured for the SL DRX group is running; or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running for any sidelink communication; or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running for any sidelink communication resource in the SL DRX group…”. See also ¶ 0081: “The first device may receive from a second device, configuration parameters for the control of DRX procedure, the configuration parameters may include: drx-onDurationTimerSL, drx-SlotOffsetSL, drx-InactivityTimerSL, drx-RetransmissionTimerSL (per SL HARQ process), drx-LongCycleStartOffsetSL, drx-ShortCycleSL, drx-ShortCycleTimerSL, drx-CycleSL, drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerSL, ps-WakeupSL, ps-TransmitOtherPeriodicCSI-SL, or ps-TransmitPeriodicL1-RSRP-SL.”]
wherein the SL DRX timer includes at least one of SL DRX on duration timer, SL DRX inactivity timer, SL DRX retransmission timer, or SL DRX hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) round trip time (RTT) timer, and [this limitation is optional since the timer in the previous limitation is drafted as an option, so if the SL DRX cycle is selected and accounted for (¶ 0081), the limitation with a timer is not given patentable weight. See ¶ 0081 - ¶0083 that possesses the SL DRX cycle and various timers of the SL DRX]
wherein at least one of a time when the SL DRX on duration timer is running, a time when the SL DRX inactivity timer is running, or a time when the SL DRX retransmission timer is running is included within the active time of the second device; [¶ 0083: “The first device may be preconfigured with one or more SL DRX group, with a SL DRX group being a group of sidelink communications …with the same SL DRX Active time. The DRX active time for a SL communication or SL communication resource in a SL DRX group may include the time while the drx-onDurationTimerSL, or drx-InactivityTimerSL, configured for the SL DRX group is running; or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running for any sidelink communication; or drx-RetransmissionTimerSL is running for any sidelink communication resource in the SL DRX group;”]
receiving, from a base station, [¶ 0097, resources are allocated to the TX UE from the gNB. ¶ 0056]
transmitting, to the second device, first sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and second SCI, via physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), based on the SL resource; [¶ 0060: the first stage SCI is transmitted on the PSCCH which helps indicate the time frequence resources PSSCH is transmitted. At the same time “PSSCH transmits the second-stage SCI”, the PSSCH being scheduled by the first stage SCI ]
transmitting, to the second device, the second SCI and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback enabled medium access control (MAC) packet data unit (PDU), via the PSSCH, based on the SL resource; [¶ 0060: “The second-stage SCI carries information needed to identify and decode the associated SL-SCH, as well as control for HARQ procedures...”., it is well know that the SL-SCH are used for the transmission of MAC PDU via the PSSCH when dealing with sidelink communication. See also ¶ 0109: “second-stage SCI that carries information needed to identify or decode the associated SL-SCH that carries the TB of data transmitted over SL, as well as control for HARQ procedures…”, the TB of data being interpreted as the MAC PDU].
D1 does not disclose: an information relating to SL and UL resources and monitoring SL HARQ feedback information for the MAC PDU, on physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resource determined based on an index of sub-channel and an index of slot related to the PSSCH; and
transmitting, to the base station, information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated from the base station on the UL resource, based on that a number of the SL HARQ feedback information not received reaches a threshold.
However, the analogous art D2 discloses: monitoring SL HARQ feedback information for the MAC PDU, on physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resource [¶ 0101, the HARQ response for sidelink data (interpreted as MAC PDU) is monitored from the second terminal over a period of time. It is well known in the art, that the feedback channel in sidelink communication is known as PSFCH, see ¶ 0087. In SL communication PSFCH is used to transmits the HARQ]
transmitting, to the base station, information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated from the base station on the UL resource, based on that a number of the SL HARQ feedback information not received reaches a threshold. [¶ 0010: RLF is declared when a number of HARQ response from the second terminal is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, when this happen in view of ¶ 0102, the first terminal will send an indication to the base station (via the UCI (in the art UCI is transmitted over PUCCH or PUSCH, which are UL resources being used)) asking the base station to release resources in the sidelink (this is interpreted as the base
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify D1’s system in view of D2. The motivation for making the above modification would have been to for detecting radio link failure for a sidelink [see ¶ 0002 of D2].
D1 in view of D2 does not disclose: an information relating to SL and UL resources and PSFCH resource determined based on an index of sub-channel and an index of slot related to the PSSCH.
Such difference is seen in the analogous art of D3, see ¶ 0244: The base station is able to assign resources for sidelink communication at a first UE (TX UE) and at the same time indicate a third resource for the TX UE to transmit PUCCH (UL resources). See also last sentence in ¶ 0234, whereby the base station manages PUCCH and PUSCH resources (UL channel resource) between the plurality of wireless devices (see also ¶ 0259 and latter part of ¶ 0258).
At the same time ¶ 0255 which discloses: “PSFCH resource starting offset may be associated with the starting subchannel index of a PSSCH, where it is assumed that the PSFCH resource may be indexed using different code and/or frequency resource in a slot.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify D1’s system in view of D2 and D3. The motivation for making the above modification would have been to reduce PSFCH resource indication bit size and avoid PSFCH resource conflict. [see ¶ 0255 of D3].
Claims 14 – 20 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 1. Regarding claim 14 -15 and 18, such elements as a memory, transceiver and processor interconnected at the first device, apparatus and base station are seen in D1 and D3, see figure 10f and its description in ¶ 346-351 of D1 (WTRU/apparatus) and Figure 15, label 1504 of D3 (base station/apparatus). Regarding claim 16 and 20 which requires a non-transitory computer readable medium see D1, ¶ 0362.
Claim 2, D2 further discloses: The method of claim 1, wherein the information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated includes HARQ acknowledgement (ACK) information. [¶ 0101 - ¶ 0102: that BFI that is sent to the base station will release sidelink resources (interpreted as preventing additional SL resources), will impact HARQ ACK transmission on the sidelink].
Claim 3, D2 further discloses: The method of claim 1, wherein the information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated includes identifier information for identifying that reception of the SL HARQ feedback information is absent. [see the last row of the table in ¶ 0094 in view of ¶ 0111, the identifier 0 indicates HARQ NACK is not being transmitted]
Claim 4, D2 further discloses: The method of claim 3, wherein the information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated includes HARQ negative ACK (NACK) information and the identifier information. [see the last row of the table in ¶ 0094 in view of ¶ 0111, the identifier indicates HARQ NACK is being transmitted, ¶ 0101 - ¶ 0102: BFI that is sent to the base station will release sidelink resources (interpreted as preventing additional SL resources), will impact HARQ ACK transmission on the sidelink].
Claim 5, D2 further discloses: The method claim1, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, the information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated from the base station on the UL resource, based on that the number of the SL HARQ feedback information not received is greater than or equal to the threshold. [¶ 0010: RLF is declared when a number of HARQ response from the second terminal is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, when this happen in view of ¶ 0102, the first terminal will send an indication to the base station (via the UCI, implies the uplink resources that Is allocated to the UE for sidelink communication is being used) asking the base station to release resources in the sidelink (this is interpreted as the base station preventing additional SL resources from being allocated). See also ¶ 0103].
Claim 6, D3 further discloses: The method of claim 1, wherein the UL resource includes at least one of physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource or physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) resource. [¶ 0244: The base station is able to assign resources for sidelink communication at a first UE (TX UE) and at the same time indicate a third resource for the TX UE to transmit PUCCH (UL resources). See also last sentence in ¶ 0234, whereby the base station manages PUCCH and PUSCH resources (UL channel resource) between the plurality of wireless devices (see also ¶ 0259 and latter part of ¶ 0258).
Claim 7, D2 further discloses: The method of claim1, wherein the information to prevent additional SL resources from being allocated from the base station is transmitted to the base station on the UL resource, based on that the number of the SL HARQ feedback information not consecutively received reaches the threshold. [¶0114: “Meanwhile, the first terminal may receive HARQ NACK and/or DTX from the second terminal, and may determine whether an RLF occurs based on the number of HARQ NACKs or DTXs (e.g., consecutive HARQ NACKs and/or DTXs) received from the second terminal.”]
Claim 10, D2 further discloses: The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to the base station, HARQ NACK information on UL resource, based on that the number of the SL HARQ feedback information not received does not reach the threshold. [¶ 0010: RLF is declared when a number of HARQ response from the second terminal is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, when this happens in view of ¶ 0102, the first terminal will send an indication to the base station. Claim 10 requires the threshold not being met, it is quite obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art that the UE will send indication to the base station in the UL if the HARQ does not reach the threshold, since the base station would like to know when to reassign resources if there was a failure in the sidelink].
2 Claim(s) 11 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adjakple et al. (US 2024/0172325 A1, herein refer to as D1) in view of Hahn (US 2021/0068189A1, herein refer to as D2), Chae et al. (US 2021/0377989, herein refer to as D3) and Loehr et al. (US 2020/0304247 A1, herein refer to as D4).
Regarding claim 11, D1 in view of D2 and D3 discloses: The method of claim 1 (see rejected claim 1).
D1 In view of D2 and D3 does not disclose: wherein the additional SL resource includes grant for SL retransmission, such difference is seen in D4, see ¶ 0056: “Here, the feedback message 245 either indicates the successful reception of the scheduled SL transmission or, respectively, requests an additional SL resource for the HARQ retransmission of the SL transmission scheduled by the SL grant. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify D1’s system in view of D2, D3 and D4. The motivation for making the above modification would have been to solve the problem of blind retransmission without any HARQ feedback [see ¶ 0005 of D4].
Regarding claim 13: D1 in view of D2, D3 and D4 discloses: The method of claim 11, further comprising: wherein the SL DRX HARQ RTT timer includes minimum duration before the SL retransmission is expected, and wherein the SL DRX retransmission timer includes maximum duration until the SL retransmission is received, performing the SL retransmission to the second device, based on that the grant for SL retransmission is received. [Art is not necessary for this limitation since “the SL DRX HARQ RTT timer” refers back to the SL DRX timer in claim 1 which is optional (“to a SL DRX cycle or information related to a SL DRX timer,”) the examiner relies on SL DXR cycle resulting in claim 13 limitation to be accounted for since claim 13 inherits claim 1 optional limitation].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 – 9 and 12 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHARISHI V KHIRODHAR whose telephone number is (571)270-7909. The examiner can normally be reached 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM.
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MAHARISHI V. KHIRODHAR
Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/MAHARISHI V KHIRODHAR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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