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 .
Response to Amendment
This communication is considered fully responsive to the Arguments/Remarks filed on 7/1/2026.
Claims 1-26 and 29 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 17, 26 and 29 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Previously used Peng reference is used to reject the amended feature. Based on the clarification of this amended feature, claims 2, 18, 27 and 30 are reconsidered to be allowable subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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(s) 1, 4, 5, 10, 14, 15, 17, 20, 21, 26, 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abbas et al. (WO 2021/197581 A1, hereinafter “Abbas”) in view of Peng et al. (US 2024/0064723, hereinafter “Peng”).
For claims 1 and 26, Abbas discloses A first user equipment (UE) (Fig. 1 shows a first client device 100 according to an embodiment of the invention. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the first client device 100 comprises a processor 102, a transceiver 104 and a memory 106; see Abbas page 9 lines 4-6), comprising:
one or more antennas; and a processing system, coupled with the one or more antennas, that includes one or more processors and one or more memories that store code and are coupled with the one or more processors, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the first UE to (The transceiver 104 of the first client device 100 may be a transceiver circuit, a power controller, an antenna, or an interface which communicates with other modules or devices; see Abbas page 9 lines 26-27):
receive, from a second UE, assistance information (The first client device 100 is configured to perform sidelink communication with one or more second client devices 600a, 600b ... , 600n based on a first sidelink configuration. The method 200 comprises obtaining 202 assistance information associated to the sidelink communication from the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n; see Abbas page 10 lines 8-12) for communication between the first UE and a network entity (Fig. 4 shows example of interfaces, indicated with arrows in Fig. 4, between the first client device 100 and one second client devices 600n, as well as between the first client device 100 and the network entity 300, over which the assistance information and sidelink configurations may be transferred; see Abbas page 11 lines 22-25), wherein the assistance information comprises one or more of:
an indication of a system information change associated with the network entity (The network entity 300 may further receive configuration updates from the core network and the application server. The second sidelink configuration may further be determined by the network entity 300 in co-operation with one or more other network nodes. The first client device 100 may receive the second sidelink configuration in any of a radio resource control message, non-access stratum signalling, or an application message. In the same way as for the first sidelink configuration, the second sidelink configuration may be at least one of: a radio bearer configuration, a resource configuration, a resource configuration per zone, and a zone configuration; see Abbas page 16 lines 1-9),
a public warning signal (PWS) notification associated with the network entity (The sidelink communication between the first client device 100 and the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the first sidelink configuration may be unicast, groupcast and/or broadcast communication and may e.g. be performed over PCS interfaces. The sidelink communication may be performed to exchange information such as safety messages, e.g. cooperative awareness messages (CAM), decentralized environmental notification messages (DENM), or non-safety messages received in an upper layer such as an application layer in the client devices 100, 600a, 600b, ... , 600n.; see Abbas page 12 lines 1-8),
one or more signal strength measurements associated with the network entity (In step 606, the first client device 100 transmit a measurement report to the network entity 300. The measurement report may be transmitted upon detecting that a thresholds and/or triggering condition is fulfilled. The measurement report may be associated to at least one of: a signal strength, a channel busy ratio in sidelink, a guaranteed sidelink quality-of-service, QoS, and priority vehicle information; see Abbas page 18 lines 5-9), or;
and communicate with the network entity in accordance with the assistance information (The method 200 further comprises transmitting 204 the assistance information to a network entity 300, receiving 206 a second sidelink configuration associated to the sidelink communication from the network entity 300 in response to the transmission of the assistance information, and transmitting 208 at least one part of the second sidelink configuration to the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n; see Abbas page 10 lines 12-16).
Abbas does not explicitly disclose wherein the assistance information is associated with signaling between the second UE and the network entity; and. Peng discloses wherein the assistance information is associated with signaling between the second UE and the network entity (Part 650: Receive first scheduling information from the access network device, where the first scheduling information includes the uplink scheduling information and the assistance information required for the uplink transmission data. In a possible implementation of Part 650, the second communication device receives the PDCCH from the radio access network device, and obtains, through decoding, the DCI information, including the uplink scheduling information UL grant, and the assistance information that is required for sending data by UE, such as the SFI, the PI, and the power control command; see Peng par. 0118-0119, 0161); and
Abbas does not explicitly disclose information associated with an uplink transmission to the network entity. Peng discloses information associated with an uplink transmission to the network entity (Part 520: Send first information to the second communication device, where the first information includes one or more of the following: uplink scheduling information, uplink transmission data, assistance information required for the uplink transmission data, and hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process information, and the first information is used for the communication between the second communication device and the access network device; see Peng par. 0085-0087, 0115, 0118).
It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Peng's arrangement in Abbas's invention to support relaying of the uplink transmission data from the first communication device, so as to improve coordination efficiency between UEs; see Peng par. 0007).
For claim 4, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to:
transmit a request for the assistance information for the communication between the first UE and the network entity, wherein receiving the assistance information from the second UE is in accordance with transmitting the request (Once the network entity 300 has identified the one or more out-of-coverage second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n, the network entity 300 may want to assist the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n with resource configuration. To be able to do that, 35 the network entity 300 may request the first client device 100 to perform and report measurements. Thus, the first client device 100 may in step 604 perform measurements and monitor the measurements, where the measurements may be monitored based on thresholds and/or triggering conditions receive from the network entity 300; see Abbas page 17 line 32 – page 18 line 3).
For claim 5, Abbas discloses The fist UE of claim 4, wherein the first UE transmits the request via unicast signaling to the second UE or to the network entity (The sidelink communication between the first client device 100 and the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the first sidelink configuration may be unicast, groupcast and/or broadcast communication and may e.g. be performed over PCS interfaces; see Abbas page 12 lines 1-3).
For claim 10, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to:
transmit or receive an indication of the second UE as a helping UE for a group of UEs including the first UE and the second UE, the group of UEs including at least one UE that assists communication at one or more other UEs in the group of UEs, wherein receiving the assistance information from the second UE is associated with transmitting or receiving the indication of the second UE as the helping UE (In step 610, the first client device 100 configures to become an anchor client device based on the anchor configuration. The first client device 100 acting as an anchor client device may assist to e.g. relay resource configurations from the network entity 300 to the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n which are out-of-coverage. For example, the first client device 100 as an anchor client device may relay the second sidelink configuration to the 25 one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n, as described with reference to Fig. 5. In this case, the first client device 100 configures to become an anchor client device based on the anchor configuration prior to transmitting the second sidelink configuration to the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n, i.e. prior to step 408 in method 400. In embodiments, method 600 may be performed before method 400 such that after the first client 30 device 100 has been configured to act as an anchor client device, the first client device 100 receives the assistance information from the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n.; see Abbas page 18 lines 20-32).
For claim 14, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein:
receiving the assistance information comprises receiving the one or more signal strength measurements associated with the network entity (In step 606, the first client device 100 transmit a measurement report to the network entity 300. The measurement report may be transmitted upon detecting that a thresholds and/or triggering condition is fulfilled. The measurement report may be associated to at least one of: a signal strength, a channel busy ratio in sidelink, a guaranteed sidelink quality-of-service, QoS, and priority vehicle information; see Abbas page 18 lines 5-9),
communicating with the network entity in accordance with the assistance information comprises transmitting cell selection signaling to the one or more cells associated with the one or more signal strength measurements (In step 410, the first client device 100 may perform sidelink communication with the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the second sidelink configuration upon receiving the second side link configuration. Step 410 is performed when the second sidelink configuration is applicable to the first client device 100, e.g. when the first client device 100 is part of a unicast or groupcast sidelink communication for which the network has assigned a new resource configuration with the second sidelink configuration; see Abbas page 17 lines 1-7).
Abbas does not explicitly disclose wherein the one or more signal strength measurements are associated with one or more cells on a per frequency band basis or across a set of frequency bands; and. Peng discloses wherein the one or more signal strength measurements are associated with one or more cells on a per frequency band basis or across a set of frequency bands (The first communication device may select one or more surrounding second communication devices based on a service requirement of the first communication device, for example, a requirement on an uplink traffic volume, a transmission rate, or a latency. The first communication device may select an optimal second communication device based on signal quality of the second communication device on an uplink (Uu link), a traffic volume of the second communication device, a capability and quality of a coordinating link, and other information… Part 540: Send second information to the access network device, where the second information includes the information about the first frequency band of the second communication device and information about a second frequency band of the first communication device, and the information about the second frequency band is uplink transmission frequency band information supported by the first communication device… Specifically, the second information includes uplink transmission frequency band information formed by a component carrier CC 1 and a component carrier CC 2. In addition, the second information may alternatively indicate that the CC 1 of the first communication device is the primary component carrier (primary component carrier, PCC), and is for configuring a PUCCH by the radio access network device. It may be understood that, in an existing CA technology, a CA capability of UE mainly refers to a combination of bands (which may be, for example, indicated in an information element BandCombination) that can be supported by the UE; see Peng par. 0093-0096); and. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Peng's arrangement in Abbas's invention to support relaying of the uplink transmission data from the first communication device, so as to improve coordination efficiency between UEs; see Peng par. 0007).
For claim 15, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein:
communicating with the network entity in accordance with the assistance information comprises transmitting a message to the network entity in accordance with the information associated with the uplink transmission (In step 410, the first client device 100 may perform sidelink communication with the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the second sidelink configuration upon receiving the second side link configuration. Step 410 is performed when the second sidelink configuration is applicable to the first client device 100, e.g. when the first client device 100 is part of a unicast or groupcast sidelink communication for which the network has assigned a new resource configuration with the second sidelink configuration; see Abbas page 17 lines 1-7).
Abbas does not explicitly disclose receiving the assistance information comprises receiving the information associated with the uplink transmission to the network entity, wherein the information associated with the uplink transmission comprises one or more of an uplink transmit power, a directional beam, or a timing advance (TA) command; and. Peng discloses receiving the assistance information comprises receiving the information associated with the uplink transmission to the network entity (Part 520: Send first information to the second communication device, where the first information includes one or more of the following: uplink scheduling information, uplink transmission data, assistance information required for the uplink transmission data, and hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process information, and the first information is used for the communication between the second communication device and the access network device; see Peng par. 0085-0087, 0115, 0118), wherein the information associated with the uplink transmission comprises one or more of an uplink output power, a directional beam, or a timing advance (TA) command (obtain, through decoding, DCI information, including uplink scheduling information UL grant, and assistance information that is required for sending data by UE, such as a slot format indicator (SFI), a pre-emption indication (PI), and a power control command; see Peng par. 0084; in a possible implementation of Part 520, if the first configuration information in Part 510 includes the PDCCH configuration information, after receiving a UL grant corresponding to a CC 2, the first communication device may send corresponding uplink data (in a TB form), UE assistance information, and HARQ process configuration information to a non-3GPP physical layer of the second communication device, for relaying the uplink transmission data by the second communication device. The UE assistance information indicates information such as an SFI, a PI, and a power control command; see Peng par. 0087); and . It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Peng's arrangement in Abbas's invention to support relaying of the uplink transmission data from the first communication device, so as to improve coordination efficiency between UEs; see Peng par. 0007).
For claims 17 and 29, Abbas discloses A second user equipment (UE), comprising: one or more antennas; and a processing system, coupled with the one or more antennas, that includes one or more processors and one or more memories that store code and are coupled with the one or more processors, wherein the processing system is configured to cause the second UE to (Figs. 3a-b show a communication system 500 according to an embodiment of the invention. The communication system 500 comprises a network entity 300, a first client device 100, and 20 one or more second client devices 600a, 600b ... , 600n, all configured to operate in the communication system 500; see Abbas page 10 lines 18-21; The transceiver 104 of the first client device 100 may be a transceiver circuit, a power controller, an antenna, or an interface which communicates with other modules or devices; see Abbas page 9 lines 26-27):
receive, by the second UE from a network entity, signaling associated with assistance information for a first (UE) (The method 200 further comprises transmitting 204 the assistance information to a network entity 300, receiving 206 a second sidelink configuration associated to the sidelink communication from the network entity 300 in response to the transmission of the assistance information, and transmitting 208 at least one part of the second sidelink configuration to the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n; see Abbas page 10 lines 12-16), wherein the assistance information includes one or more of:
an indication of a system information change associated with a network entity (The network entity 300 may further receive configuration updates from the core network and the application server. The second sidelink configuration may further be determined by the network entity 300 in co-operation with one or more other network nodes. The first client device 100 may receive the second sidelink configuration in any of a radio resource control message, non-access stratum signalling, or an application message. In the same way as for the first sidelink configuration, the second sidelink configuration may be at least one of: a radio bearer configuration, a resource configuration, a resource configuration per zone, and a zone configuration; see Abbas page 16 lines 1-9),
a public warning signal (PWS) notification associated with the network entity (The sidelink communication between the first client device 100 and the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the first sidelink configuration may be unicast, groupcast and/or broadcast communication and may e.g. be performed over PCS interfaces. The sidelink communication may be performed to exchange information such as safety messages, e.g. cooperative awareness messages (CAM), decentralized environmental notification messages (DENM), or non-safety messages received in an upper layer such as an application layer in the client devices 100, 600a, 600b, ... , 600n.; see Abbas page 12 lines 1-8),
one or more signal strength measurements associated with the network entity (In step 606, the first client device 100 transmit a measurement report to the network entity 300. The measurement report may be transmitted upon detecting that a thresholds and/or triggering condition is fulfilled. The measurement report may be associated to at least one of: a signal strength, a channel busy ratio in sidelink, a guaranteed sidelink quality-of-service, QoS, and priority vehicle information; see Abbas page 18 lines 5-9), or; and
transmit, from the second UE to the first UE, the assistance information in accordance with the received signaling (The assistance information from the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n to the first client device 100 acting as an anchor client device may be application specific for certain use cases. The following are some examples of possible assistance information from the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n, hereafter referred to as out-of-coverage (OoC) UEs, to the first client device 100, when the first client device 100 is acting as an anchor client device; see Abbas page 18 line 34 to page 19 line 2).
Abbas does not explicitly disclose information associated with an uplink transmission to the network entity. Peng discloses information associated with an uplink transmission to the network entity (Part 520: Send first information to the second communication device, where the first information includes one or more of the following: uplink scheduling information, uplink transmission data, assistance information required for the uplink transmission data, and hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process information, and the first information is used for the communication between the second communication device and the access network device; see Peng par. 0085-0087, 0115, 0118). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Peng's arrangement in Abbas's invention to support relaying of the uplink transmission data from the first communication device, so as to improve coordination efficiency between UEs; see Peng par. 0007).
For claim 20, Abbas discloses The second UE of claim 17, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: receive a request for the assistance information for communication between the first UE and the network entity, wherein transmitting the assistance information to the first UE is associated with receiving the request (Once the network entity 300 has identified the one or more out-of-coverage second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n, the network entity 300 may want to assist the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n with resource configuration. To be able to do that, 35 the network entity 300 may request the first client device 100 to perform and report measurements. Thus, the first client device 100 may in step 604 perform measurements and monitor the measurements, where the measurements may be monitored based on thresholds and/or triggering conditions receive from the network entity 300; see Abbas page 17 line 32 – page 18 line 3).
For claim 21, Abbas discloses The second UE of claim 20, wherein the second UE receives the request via unicast signaling from the first UE (The sidelink communication between the first client device 100 and the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the first sidelink configuration may be unicast, groupcast and/or broadcast communication and may e.g. be performed over PCS interfaces; see Abbas page 12 lines 1-3).
Claim(s) 3, 19, 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abbas and Peng, and further in view of Huang et al. (US 2023/0362973, hereinafter “Huang”).
For claims 3 and 28, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: receive control signaling indicating a time and frequency resource allocation associated with the assistance information; and monitor for the assistance information over the time and frequency resource allocation. Huang discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: receive control signaling (S801: The first terminal device sends the first SCI, and the second terminal device sends the second SCI; see Huang par. 0204; the first terminal device receives the assistance information. The assistance information is used to assist the first terminal device in resource selection; see Huang par. 0221) indicating a time and frequency resource allocation associated with the assistance information (The resources indicated by the first SCI include at least one resource used by the first terminal device and at least one resource reserved by the first terminal device, and the resources indicated by the second SCI include at least one resource used by the second terminal device and at least one resource reserved by the second terminal device. In other words, the first SCI may indicate a plurality of resources, and the second SCI may also indicate a plurality of resources. The resource may be a time-frequency resource; see Huang par. 0206); and monitor for the assistance information over the time and frequency resource allocation (the third terminal device is the receiver of the data of the first terminal device. In addition, based on the RSRP measurement value, transmission of the second terminal device causes strong interference to receiving of the third terminal device. In this case, time-frequency resource overlapping is a resource conflict. Data transmission of the second terminal device affects the data transmission reliability of the first terminal device. Therefore, the third terminal device sends the assistance information to the first terminal device; see Huang par. 0258). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Huang's arrangement in Abbas's invention to assist a terminal device with resource overlapping in resource selection (see Huang par. 0004).
For claim 19, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The second UE of claim 17, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit or receive control signaling indicating a time and frequency resource allocation associated with the assistance information, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information over the time and frequency resource allocation. Huang discloses The second UE of claim 17, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit or receive control signaling (S801: The first terminal device sends the first SCI, and the second terminal device sends the second SCI; see Huang par. 0204; the first terminal device receives the assistance information. The assistance information is used to assist the first terminal device in resource selection; see Huang par. 0221) indicating a time and frequency resource allocation associated with the assistance information, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information over the time and frequency resource allocation (The resources indicated by the first SCI include at least one resource used by the first terminal device and at least one resource reserved by the first terminal device, and the resources indicated by the second SCI include at least one resource used by the second terminal device and at least one resource reserved by the second terminal device. In other words, the first SCI may indicate a plurality of resources, and the second SCI may also indicate a plurality of resources. The resource may be a time-frequency resource; see Huang par. 0206); and monitor for the assistance information over the time and frequency resource allocation (the third terminal device is the receiver of the data of the first terminal device. In addition, based on the RSRP measurement value, transmission of the second terminal device causes strong interference to receiving of the third terminal device. In this case, time-frequency resource overlapping is a resource conflict. Data transmission of the second terminal device affects the data transmission reliability of the first terminal device. Therefore, the third terminal device sends the assistance information to the first terminal device; see Huang par. 0258). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Huang's arrangement in Abbas's invention to assist a terminal device with resource overlapping in resource selection (see Huang par. 0004).
Claim(s) 6, 7, 22, 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abbas and Peng, and further in view of Farag et al. (US 2022/0159752, hereinafter “Farag”).
For claim 6, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 4, wherein the first UE transmits the request via groupcast signaling associated with a zone identifier, and the interface is further configured to: receive, from the second UE, one or more messages associated with an availability of the second UE to provide the assistance information to the first UE and associated with establishing a sidelink connection between the first UE and the second UE, wherein receiveing the assistance information from the second UE is associated with receiving the one or more messages. Farag discloses The first UE of claim 4, wherein the first UE transmits the request via groupcast signaling associated with a zone identifier, and the interface is further configured to: receive, from the second UE, one or more messages associated with an availability of the second UE to provide the assistance information to the first UE and associated with establishing a sidelink connection between the first UE and the second UE, wherein receiving the assistance information from the second UE is associated with receiving the one or more messages (In one example 1.8, a UE can receive broadcast SL assistance information, when the UE has information to transmit on the SL. In one embodiment, groupcast of SL information from gNB or eNB is provided. A set of users in a groupcast group is configured and updated by higher layer signaling. In one example, the configuration of UEs in a groupcast set can be based on one or more of the following: (i) the Type of UE, e.g., whether a UE has a SL receiver, or whether a UE doesn't have a SL receiver. Or whether a UE is a low energy UE (e.g., with a limited energy supply) or not; (ii) the location of a UE. UEs within a certain zone or area can be in a same groupcast set. The boundary of the zone or area can be configured or updated by higher layer signaling, e.g., RRC signaling and/or MAC CE signaling. As the UE moves, the UE can autonomously determine the groupcast set; (iii) the direction of travel of UE. UEs traveling in a certain direction can be in a same groupcast set; (iv) the motion of a UE. UEs that are stationary or moving with a low speed can be in a same groupcast set, UEs moving at a higher speed can be in another groupcast set; and (v) configuration or re-configuration by higher layer RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling or L1 control signaling, wherein a UE is configured/indicated with a groupcast ID; see Farag par. 0187-0190). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
For claim 7, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE, and the interface is further configured to: receive, from the network entity, an indication of one or more periods and time domain offsets associated with the groupcast signaling of the assistance information. Farag discloses The first of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE, and the interface is further configured to: receive, from the network entity, an indication of one or more periods and time domain offsets associated with the groupcast signaling of the assistance information (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
For claim 22, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The second UE of claim 20, wherein the second UE receives the request via groupcast signaling associated with a zone identifier, and the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit, to the first UE, one or more messages associated with an availability of the second UE to provide the assistance information to the first UE and associated with establishing a sidelink connection between the first UE and the second UE, wherein transmitting the assistance information to the first UE is associated with transmitting the one or more messages. Farag discloses The second UE of claim 20, wherein the second UE receives the request via groupcast signaling associated with a zone identifier, and the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit, to the first UE, one or more messages associated with an availability of the second UE to provide the assistance information to the first UE and associated with establishing a sidelink connection between the first UE and the second UE, wherein transmitting the assistance information to the first UE is associated with transmitting the one or more messages (In one example 1.8, a UE can receive broadcast SL assistance information, when the UE has information to transmit on the SL. In one embodiment, groupcast of SL information from gNB or eNB is provided. A set of users in a groupcast group is configured and updated by higher layer signaling. In one example, the configuration of UEs in a groupcast set can be based on one or more of the following: (i) the Type of UE, e.g., whether a UE has a SL receiver, or whether a UE doesn't have a SL receiver. Or whether a UE is a low energy UE (e.g., with a limited energy supply) or not; (ii) the location of a UE. UEs within a certain zone or area can be in a same groupcast set. The boundary of the zone or area can be configured or updated by higher layer signaling, e.g., RRC signaling and/or MAC CE signaling. As the UE moves, the UE can autonomously determine the groupcast set; (iii) the direction of travel of UE. UEs traveling in a certain direction can be in a same groupcast set; (iv) the motion of a UE. UEs that are stationary or moving with a low speed can be in a same groupcast set, UEs moving at a higher speed can be in another groupcast set; and (v) configuration or re-configuration by higher layer RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling or L1 control signaling, wherein a UE is configured/indicated with a groupcast ID; see Farag par. 0187-0190). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
For claim 23, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling, and the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: receive, from the network entity, an indication of one or more periods and time domain offsets associated with the groupcast signaling of the assistance information. Farag discloses The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling, and the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: receive, from the network entity, an indication of one or more periods and time domain offsets associated with the groupcast signaling of the assistance information (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
Claim(s) 8, 9, 12, 13, 24, 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abbas and Peng, and further in view of Park et al. (US 2023/0147699, hereinafter “Park”).
For claim 8, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE and different types of assistance information are associated with same periods and same time domain offsets, and the interface is further configured to: receive control signaling including one or more fields indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information and indicating a type of the assistance information, wherein receiveing the assistance information is in accordance with receiving the control signaling.
Farag discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE and different types of assistance information are associated with same periods and same time domain offsets (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
Park discloses and the interface is further configured to: receive control signaling including one or more fields indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information and indicating a type of the assistance information, wherein receiving the assistance information is in accordance with receiving the control signaling (Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1110, the first device may transmit, to a second device through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), first sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and second SCI. For example, the first SCI may include information related to frequency resource assignment, information related to time resource assignment and information related to a format of the second SCI. In step S1120, the first device may transmit, to the second device through the PSSCH, the second SCI including a source ID and a destination ID and an inter-UE coordination message. For example, the inter-UE coordination message may include information related to a preferred resource or information related to a non-preferred resource, and information representing that the inter-UE coordination message is transmitted may be included in the first SCI or the second SCI; see Park par. 0154, 0162-0171). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
For claim 9, the combination of Abbas and Pend does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE and different types of assistance information are associated with at least one of different periods or different time domain offsets, and the interface is further configured to: receive control signaling indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information via a bit in the control signaling or via a radio network identifier, wherein receiving the assistance information is in accordance with receiving the control signaling.
Farag discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the first UE receives the assistance information via groupcast signaling from the second UE and different types of assistance information are associated with at least one of different periods or different time domain offsets (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253), and. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005).
Park discloses the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: receive control signaling indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information via a bit in the control signaling or via a radio network identifier, wherein receiving the assistance information is in accordance with receiving the control signaling (In step S940, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-C based on the selected SL resource. Alternatively/additionally, in step S950, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-A based on the selected SL resource. For example, first SCI transmitted in step S910 may include information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH in step S920. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be transmitted based on a reserved bit included in the first SCI. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be information related to a second SCI format included in the first SCI. Specifically, for example, second SCI having a specific format among a plurality of second SCI formats may be used to schedule transmission of assistance information; see Park par. 0108). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
For claim 12, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein:
receiving the assistance information comprises receiving the indication of the system information change associated with the network entity (The network entity 300 may further receive configuration updates from the core network and the application server. The second sidelink configuration may further be determined by the network entity 300 in co-operation with one or more other network nodes. The first client device 100 may receive the second sidelink configuration in any of a radio resource control message, non-access stratum signalling, or an application message. In the same way as for the first sidelink configuration, the second sidelink configuration may be at least one of: a radio bearer configuration, a resource configuration, a resource configuration per zone, and a zone configuration; see Abbas page 16 lines 1-9),
communicating with the network entity in accordance with the assistance information comprises communicating in accordance with the changed system information (In step 410, the first client device 100 may perform sidelink communication with the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the second sidelink configuration upon receiving the second side link configuration. Step 410 is performed when the second sidelink configuration is applicable to the first client device 100, e.g. when the first client device 100 is part of a unicast or groupcast sidelink communication for which the network has assigned a new resource configuration with the second sidelink configuration; see Abbas page 17 lines 1-7).
The combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose wherein the indication of the system information change comprises a single bit change indication or a content of changed system information. Park discloses wherein the indication of the system information change comprises a single bit change indication or a content of changed system information (In step S940, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-C based on the selected SL resource. Alternatively/additionally, in step S950, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-A based on the selected SL resource. For example, first SCI transmitted in step S910 may include information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH in step S920. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be transmitted based on a reserved bit included in the first SCI. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be information related to a second SCI format included in the first SCI. Specifically, for example, second SCI having a specific format among a plurality of second SCI formats may be used to schedule transmission of assistance information; see Park par. 0108); and. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
For claim 13, Abbas discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein:
receiving the assistance information comprises receiving the indication of the PWS notification associated with the network entity (The sidelink communication between the first client device 100 and the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the first sidelink configuration may be unicast, groupcast and/or broadcast communication and may e.g. be performed over PCS interfaces. The sidelink communication may be performed to exchange information such as safety messages, e.g. cooperative awareness messages (CAM), decentralized environmental notification messages (DENM), or non-safety messages received in an upper layer such as an application layer in the client devices 100, 600a, 600b, ... , 600n.; see Abbas page 12 lines 1-8),
communicating with the network entity in accordance with the assistance information comprises receiving PWS content from the network entity in accordance with the indication of the PWS notification (In step 410, the first client device 100 may perform sidelink communication with the one or more second client devices 600a, 600b, ... , 600n based on the second sidelink configuration upon receiving the second side link configuration. Step 410 is performed when the second sidelink configuration is applicable to the first client device 100, e.g. when the first client device 100 is part of a unicast or groupcast sidelink communication for which the network has assigned a new resource configuration with the second sidelink configuration; see Abbas page 17 lines 1-7).
The combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose wherein the indication of the PWS notification comprises a single bit change indication or a content of changed PWS notification information; and. Park discloses wherein the indication of the PWS notification comprises a single bit change indication or a content of changed PWS notification information (In step S940, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-C based on the selected SL resource. Alternatively/additionally, in step S950, the UE-B may transmit a PSCCH and/or a PSSCH to the UE-A based on the selected SL resource. For example, first SCI transmitted in step S910 may include information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH in step S920. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be transmitted based on a reserved bit included in the first SCI. For example, the information representing that the assistance information is transmitted through the PSSCH may be information related to a second SCI format included in the first SCI. Specifically, for example, second SCI having a specific format among a plurality of second SCI formats may be used to schedule transmission of assistance information; see Park par. 0108); and. It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
For claim 24, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling and different types of assistance information are associated with same periods and same time domain offsets, and the interface is further configured to: transmit control signaling including one or more fields indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information and indicating a type of the assistance information, wherein transmitting the assistance information is in accordance with transmitting the control signaling.
Farag discloses The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling and different types of assistance information are associated with same periods and same time domain offsets (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005), and
Park discloses the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit control signaling including one or more fields indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information and indicating a type of the assistance information, wherein transmitting the assistance information is in accordance with transmitting the control signaling (Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1110, the first device may transmit, to a second device through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), first sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and second SCI. For example, the first SCI may include information related to frequency resource assignment, information related to time resource assignment and information related to a format of the second SCI. In step S1120, the first device may transmit, to the second device through the PSSCH, the second SCI including a source ID and a destination ID and an inter-UE coordination message. For example, the inter-UE coordination message may include information related to a preferred resource or information related to a non-preferred resource, and information representing that the inter-UE coordination message is transmitted may be included in the first SCI or the second SCI; see Park par. 0154, 0162-0171). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
For claim 25, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling and different types of assistance information are associated with at least one of different periods or different time domain offsets, and the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit control signaling indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information via a bit in the control signaling or via a radio network identifier, wherein transmitting the assistance information is in accordance with transmitting the control signaling.
Farag discloses The second UE of claim 17, wherein the second UE transmits the assistance information via groupcast signaling and different types of assistance information are associated with at least one of different periods or different time domain offsets (In one example 2.7, SL assistance information is groupcast periodically every Nper frames, i.e., with a period of Nper ms, and with a frame offset of Noffset and with a slot offset within the frame of Soffset. Wherein some of the parameters; Nper Noffset Soffset can be groupcast-set specific, and other parameters of Nper Noffset Soffset are common across all groupcast sets. SL assistance information can be transmitted in a frame that satisfies the following equation: (SFN-Noffset)% Nper=0, where SFN is the system frame number of the frame with SL assistance information, and % is the modulo operator, where x % N equals the remainder from the division of x by N; see Farag par. 0253). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag's arrangement in Abbas's invention to determine SL resources for a SL transmission based on the SL inter-UE coordination information and select the SL resources for the SL transmission (see Farag par. 0005), and
Park discloses the processing system is further configured to cause the second UE to: transmit control signaling indicating whether a sidelink shared channel includes the assistance information via a bit in the control signaling or via a radio network identifier, wherein transmitting the assistance information is in accordance with transmitting the control signaling (Referring to FIG. 11, in step S1110, the first device may transmit, to a second device through a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), first sidelink control information (SCI) for scheduling of a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) and second SCI. For example, the first SCI may include information related to frequency resource assignment, information related to time resource assignment and information related to a format of the second SCI. In step S1120, the first device may transmit, to the second device through the PSSCH, the second SCI including a source ID and a destination ID and an inter-UE coordination message. For example, the inter-UE coordination message may include information related to a preferred resource or information related to a non-preferred resource, and information representing that the inter-UE coordination message is transmitted may be included in the first SCI or the second SCI; see Park par. 0154, 0162-0171). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Park's arrangement in Abba’s invention to use the assistance information received from the second UE, in order to improve PSSCH detection performance and/or reduce half-duplex limit and/or select a reserve resource for transmitting and receiving a specific signal (see Park par. 0092).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Abbas and Peng, and further in view of Farag et al. (US 2022/0030575, hereinafter “Farag 2”).
For claim 11, the combination of Abbas and Peng does not explicitly disclose The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: transmit, to the second UE, a termination indication associated with assisting the first UE in the communication between the first UE and the network entity; or receive, from the second UE, the termination indication associated with the assisting of the first UE in the communication between the first UE and the network entity. Farag 2 discloses The first UE of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: transmit, to the second UE, a termination indication associated with assisting the first UE in the communication between the first UE and the network entity; or receive, from the second UE, the termination indication associated with the assisting of the first UE in the communication between the first UE and the network entity (FIG. 9 is an example of a trigger/activation based inter-UE co-ordination procedure. In this example, a UE-B sends a trigger to UE-A(s) to provide RSAI (e.g., inter-UE co-ordination information) when the UE-B has SL data to transmit. A UE-A provides the data in response to the trigger/activation message from the UE-B. In a further example, the UE-B can send a deactivation message to stop the transmission of the RSAI message. In response to a trigger/activation message from the UE-B, the UE-A can one of: (1) send RSAI once, or N times to the UE-B, (N> 1 ); (2) send RSAI periodically to the UE-B until the UE-A receives a deactivation message from the UE-B to stop sending RSAI; see Farag 2 par. 0192). It would have been obvious to the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to use Farag 2's arrangement in Abbas's invention to reduce power consumption and reducing latency and improving reliability (see Farag 2 par. 0343).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2, 16, 18, 27 and 30 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 an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance for at least one claim: claim 16 would be allowable because the closest prior arts listed above either alone or in combination, fail to anticipate or render obvious, the claimed invention of “wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first UE to: monitor for signaling, from the network entity, associated with the indication of the system information change or the PWS notification for a first time duration; and monitor for signaling, from the second UE, associated with the indication of the system information change or the PWS notification for a second time duration, wherein a total monitoring time for the indication of the system information change or the PWS notification is equal to a summation of the first time duration and the second time duration”, in combination with all other limitations in the claim(s) above as defined by applicant.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHAE S LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-8236. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30AM - 5:00PM.
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/CHAE S LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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