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 .
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.
Claim(s) 39, 41, 42, 48, 49, 54, 56, 60 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Li US 20240260066.
Regarding claims 39, 54, Li teaches a method in a sidelink, SL, user equipment, UE, configured with SL carrier aggregation, CA, to handle SL radio link failure, RLF, per SL carrier, the method comprising:
monitoring a hybrid automatic repeat request, HARQ, discontinuous transmission, DTX, per SL carrier; ([0052])
for each SL carrier, determining that a HARQ-based SL RLF has occurred when a number of consecutive DT, numConsecutiveDTX, variable has reached a maximum number, sl-maxNumConsecutiveDTX, configured for the SL carrier (if the PSFCH reception does not occur at the PSFCH reception occasion, 1 is added to numConsecutiveDTX, and if numConsecutiveDTX reaches sl-maxNumConsecutiveDTX, that a sidelink RLF based on HARQ is detected is indicated to RRC [0052]); and
responsive to determining there is a SL RLF in the SL carrier: reporting SL RLF to at least one peer SL UE using at least one SL carrier of SL carriers that are not failed in a SL carrier configuration associated with the SL carrier having the SL RLF (in a case where it is determined that an RLF is detected in a first SL carrier, the terminal equipment performs, [0100], reporting the information on the first SL carrier to a peer terminal equipment (such as terminal equipment UE2 of the receiver end), such as reporting the first SL carrier or an index of the first SL carrier to the peer terminal equipment via a PC5-RRC message, [0107], In the embodiment of the first aspect, the performing radio link failure (RLF) detection on the first SL carrier includes: receiving a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) for the PSSCH transmission by the terminal equipment on a second SL carrier associated with the first SL carrier [0067, 0067], fig. 3, [0073, 0074]);
and reporting the SL RLF to a base station, gNB (reporting information on the first SL carrier to a network device, [0106], network device may include base station, [0035]).
Regarding claim 41 determining there is the SL RLF in the SL carrier comprises determining there is the SL RLF in the SL carrier responsive to at least one condition being met (if numConsecutiveDTX reaches sl-maxNumConsecutiveDTX, that a sidelink RLF based on HARQ is detected is indicated to RRC, [0052]).
Regarding claims 42, 56, wherein the at least one condition comprises at least one of:
a maximum number of out-of-sync on link instances has been reached;
a maximum number of RLC retransmissions has been reached;
a configuration error or a reconfiguration error occurs upon reception of a RRC
configuration/reconfiguration signaling message;
a maximum number of consecutive HARQ DTX has been reached (if numConsecutiveDTX reaches sl-maxNumConsecutiveDTX, that a sidelink RLF based on HARQ is detected is indicated to RRC [0052], [0055] When a maximum number of retransmissions to a specific destination indicated from a sidelink radio link control (RLC) entity has been reached, or, when timer T400 for a specific destination expires, or, when a maximum number of consecutive HARQ DTXs (discontinuous transmissions) to a specific destination indicated from an MAC entity has been reached, or, when integrity check related to sidelink signaling radio bearer 2 (SL-SRB2) or sidelink signaling radio bearer 3 (SL-SRB3) for a specific destination indicated from a sidelink packet data aggregation protocol (PDCP) entity fails, it is deemed that an SL RLF has been detected for the destination, and some other operations are executed);
no expected acknowledgement received by the peer UE upon a timer has expired; and
an acknowledgement on an RLC transmission has not been received within a certain amount of time.
Regarding claims 48, 60, wherein performing the at least one recovery action
comprises performing at least one of:
deactivating the SL carrier responsive to the SL UE having established the PC5-RRC (deactivating the first SL carrier, such as deactivating an SCC or an unlicensed carrier when the first SL carrier is the SCC or the unlicensed carrier, etc., wherein in or after deactivating, [0100], PC5-RRC, [0107])
connection on the SL carrier;
de-configuring the SL carrier responsive to the SL UE having established the PC5-RRC
connection on the SL carrier;
adding a SL carrier to replace the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been detected;
informing the SL RLF to a peer SL UE via other SL carriers that remain active;
reconfiguring the SL carrier;
tearing down the PC5-RRC connection for the SL UE;
reconfiguring or reestablishing the PC5-RRC connection for the SL UE; and
de-activating CA for the PC5 connection between the two SL UEs.
Regarding claims 49, informing the SL RLF to the peer SL UE
comprises signaling the peer SL UE of the SL RLF via at least one of:
PC5-S signaling;
PC5-RRC signaling ([0107]);
MAC CE; and
L1 signaling on physical channels.
Claim(s) 51, 52, 61 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li in view of Mok US 20200245389 and BERGSTRÖM US 20200007301.
Regarding claims 51 and 61, Li teaches receiving signaling from a sidelink, SL, user equipment, UE, configured with SL carrier aggregation, CA indicating detection of SL radio link failure, RLF, for a SL carrier (reporting information on the first SL carrier to a network device, [0106], network device may include base station, [0035], using carrier aggregation for sidelink communication, SL RLF
detection may be performed and quality of the sidelink carriers may be distinguished, [0009]));
sending a signaling to the SL UE informing the SL UE of at least one of:
deactivating the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been detected for the SL UE ([0100], RLF is detected in a first SL carrier, the terminal equipment performs at least one of the following operations (1)-(7): [0101] (1) releasing the first SL carrier, such releasing a PCC or a licensed carrier, etc., when the first SL carrier is the PCC or the licensed carrier; [0102] (2) deactivating the first SL carrier) ;
de-configuring the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been detected for the SL
UE;
adding a SL carrier to replace the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been
detected;
informing the SL RLF to a peer SL UE of the SL UE via dedicated radio resource
control, RRC, signaling;
reconfiguring the SL carrier;
tearing down the PC5-RRC connection for the SL UE;
reconfiguring or reestablishing the PC5-RRC connection for the SL UE; and
de-activating CA for the PC5 connection between the SL UE and the peer SL UE.
Although Li teaches deactivating the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been detected for the SL UE, the deactivation is performed by another UE and not the base station.
Mok teaches a base station deactivating a SL carrier (fig. 18, [0036]).
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 Li by the base station deactivating the SL carrier on which the SL RLF has been detected for the SL UE, as suggested by Mok. This modification would benefit the since adhering to preexisting standards will allow the system of Li to be more easily integrated into larger systems.
The combination is silent on wherein sending the signaling comprises sending the signaling carrying at least one of: identifiers of one or multiple SL carriers which need to be deactivated or de- configured: and indicators of one or multiple SL carriers which need to be added.
BERGSTRÖM teaches sending the signaling carrying at least one of: identifiers of one or multiple carriers which need to be deactivated or de- configured: and indicators of one or multiple carriers which need to be added (claim 8).
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 the combination by wherein sending the signaling comprises sending the signaling carrying at least one of: identifiers of one or multiple SL carriers which need to be deactivated or de- configured: and indicators of one or multiple SL carriers which need to be added, as suggested by BERGSTRÖM. This modification would benefit the system by informing the base station when SL carriers are added or deactivated.
Regarding claims 52, sending the signaling comprises sending the
signaling via at least one of:
system information;
dedicated RRC signaling (Li: [0044]);
medium access control, MAC, control element, CE; and
L1 signaling.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 40, 43-47, 50, 55, 57-59 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 7/6/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant contends Li fails to teach, “responsive to determining there is a SL RLF in the SL carrier: reporting SL RLF to at least one peer SL UE
using at least one SL carrier of SL carriers that are
not failed in a SL carrier configuration associated
with the SL carrier having the SL RLF” is not shown in Li (pg. 2). This is incorrect, see Li [0066, 0067], fig. 3, [0073, 0074].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayaz Sheikh can be reached at 571-272-3795. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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