DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/14/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 5, and 8-10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 2, the term “PSFCH” needs to be defined as to what it stands for.
In claim 5, the terms “5G” and “LTE” need to be defined as to what they stand for.
In claim 8, the term “UE” needs to be defined as to what it stands for.
In claim 9, the terms “HARQ”, “ACK”, “NACK”, and “PSFCH” need to be defined as to what they stand for.
In claim 10, the terms “5G” and “LTE” need to be defined as to what they stand for.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 1, the term “and/or” recited in line 2 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the transceiver is configured to only transmit, only receive, or both transmit and receive a signal.
Additionally, the term “and/or” recited in line 5 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the virtual resource pool comprises a plurality of component carriers, two or more resource pools, or both.
For examination purposes, all instances of the term will be interpreted as “or”.
Regarding claim 3, the term “and/or” recited in line 2 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the transceiver is configured to only transmit, only receive, or both transmit and receive a signal. For examination purposes, the term will be interpreted as “or”.
Regarding claim 6, the term “and/or” recited in line 4 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the control information describes which component carriers of the sidelink from the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool, which resource pools or bandwidth parts or virtual bandwidth parts form the virtual resource pool, or both.
Additionally, each instance of the term “and/or” recited in line 5 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the control information describes which resource pools, which bandwidth parts, which virtual bandwidth parts, or a combination thereof form the virtual resource pool.
For examination purposes, all instances of the term will be interpreted as “or”.
Regarding claim 7, each instance of the term “and/or” recited in lines 3-4 renders the scope of the claim indefinite, as it is unclear as to whether the signals comprise handover information, control information, feedback information, broadcast information, or a combination thereof. For examination purposes, all instances of the term will be interpreted and “or”.
Regarding claim 8, the terms “the default component carrier”, “the additional supported carriers”, and “supported carrier combinations” lack proper antecedent basis.
Regarding claim 9, the term “the given component carrier” lacks proper antecedent basis.
Regarding claims 2, 4-5, and 10-18, the claims are rejected for depending on claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-13 and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue et al. (US 2022/0393807 A1), hereinafter referred to as Xue, in view of Tseng et al. (US 2020/0107236 A1), hereinafter referred to as Tseng.
Regarding claim 1, Xue teaches a transceiver of a wireless communication network (Xue – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0041], note UE 104 (which has transceiver function as is conventional in the art)),
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit or receive a signal via a sidelink of the wireless communication network in a resource pool of the sidelink, the resource pool comprising a plurality of component carriers or a two or more resource pools (Xue – Fig. 1, Fig. 9; Paragraph [0043], note the base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction; Paragraph [0088], note nested PSFCH (Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel) resource sub-pools for a particular PSFCH sub-pool 910; Paragraph [0096], note the PSFCH resource pool may be for transmitting HARQ feedback associated with PSSCH transmissions via a particular sub-channel),
wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit a first type of information using a first component carrier or resource pool or virtual bandwidth part and to simultaneously transmit or receive at least a part of a second type of information using a second component carrier or resource pool or virtual bandwidth part (Xue – Fig. 9, Fig. 11; Paragraph [0089], note based on the received configuration 960 of the nested PSFCH resource pools and a PSRI associated with a PSSCH transmission, a device that receives a PSSCH transmission may select a PSFCH-HARQ resource for transmitting HARQ feedback; Paragraph [0100], note if SL transmissions from both devices are associated with an ACK/NACK groupcast, the base station may allocate different PSFCH resource sub-pools to allow for each group to use all the available PSFCH resources in the different PSFCH resource sub-pools without HARQ feedback collisions; Paragraph [0104], note the UE 1106 may transmit HARQ feedback 1122 (such as ACK/NACK (option 2) groupcast, which involves multiple PSFCH-HARQ messages, see Paragraph [0091]) to UE 1104 via the selected 1120 PSFCH resource),
wherein the first type of information is feedback information (Xue – Paragraph [0104], note the UE 1106 may transmit HARQ feedback 1122 (such as ACK/NACK (option 2) groupcast, which involves multiple PSFCH-HARQ messages, see Paragraph [0091])),
wherein the second type of information is feedback information (Xue – Paragraph [0104], note the UE 1106 may transmit HARQ feedback 1122 (such as ACK/NACK (option 2) groupcast, which involves multiple PSFCH-HARQ messages, see Paragraph [0091])).
Xue does not teach wherein the resource pool of the sidelink is a virtual resource pool.
In an analogous art, Tseng teaches (Tseng – Fig. 8; Paragraph [0098], note a base station may provide, in one component carrier 810, a set of (virtual) Resource Blocks (RBs) called sidelink resource pools (SL-RPs) 820).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Tseng into Xue in order to allow configuration of different resource pool parameters to indicate the location of sidelink resource pools, improving flexibility (Tseng – Paragraphs [0098]-[0099]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the first type of information is transmitted on PSFCH (Xue – Paragraph [0104], note the UE 1106 may transmit HARQ feedback 1122 (such as ACK/NACK (option 2) groupcast, which involves multiple PSFCH-HARQ messages, see Paragraph [0091])),
wherein the second type of information is transmitted on PSFCH (Xue – Paragraph [0104], note the UE 1106 may transmit HARQ feedback 1122 (such as ACK/NACK (option 2) groupcast, which involves multiple PSFCH-HARQ messages, see Paragraph [0091])).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit or receive the signal via the sidelink using carrier aggregation of at least two component carriers of said plurality of component carriers (Xue – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0043], note the base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein each of the two or more resource pools comprises one or more of the plurality of component carriers (Xue – Paragraph [0080], note transmitting HARQ feedback in each frequency resource (e.g., set of PRBs, PRB, or set of subcarriers) in the PSFCH resource pool).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the two or more resource pools are resource pools of one of the following types or a combination of resource pools of at least two of the following types: 5G new radio sidelink resource pools, LTE sidelink resource pools, WiFi carriers, a narrowband carrier, resource pools of another radio access technology (Xue – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0039], note D2D communication may be through Wi-Fi; Paragraph [0043], note the base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction; Paragraph [0041], note PSFCH resource sub-pools of a PSFCH resource pool, although the following description may be focused on 5G NR, the concepts described herein may be applicable to other similar areas, such as LTE, LTE-A, CDMA, GSM, and other wireless technologies).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a control information, the control information describing which component carriers of the sidelink from the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool or the control information describing which resource pools or bandwidth parts or virtual bandwidth parts form the virtual resource pool (Xue – Paragraph [0089], note a device may receive a configuration 960 of the nested PSFCH resource pools and a set of identifiers/indexes for each partition defined in the nested sub-pools, the configuration may be a pre-configuration, e.g., for Mode 1 or Mode 2 SL resource reservation, the configuration may also be a configuration received from a base station, e.g., via RRC or system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., for a Mode 1 SL resource selection)).
Regarding claim 7, Xue does not teach wherein the transceiver is configured to use a default component carrier for transmitting or receiving signals via the sidelink that comprise handover or control information or feedback and/or broadcast information.
In an analogous art, Tseng teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to use a default component carrier for transmitting or receiving signals via the sidelink that comprise handover or control information or feedback and/or broadcast information (Xue – Paragraph [0098], note a sidelink resource pool resource allocation configuration transmitted in a component carrier, a base station may provide, in one component carrier 810, a set of (virtual) Resource Blocks (RBs) called sidelink resource pools (SL-RPs) 820).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Tseng into Xue for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 8, Xue does not teach wherein the information regarding the default component carrier, along with the additional supported carriers or supported carrier combinations, is signaled from one or more of: the network, a base station, a roadside unit, another UE via sidelink.
In an analogous art, Tseng teaches wherein the information regarding the default component carrier, along with the additional supported carriers or supported carrier combinations, is signaled from one or more of: the network, a base station, a roadside unit, another UE via sidelink (Tseng – Paragraph [0092], note a frequency carrier may indicate at least one component carrier that the UE is allowed to access the LTE V2X service, in some of the present implementations, the RAN may decide the frequency carrier(s) based on a UE's capability in the supported Transmitter/Receiver (Tx/Rx) V2X bands on different capable Multi-Rat Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) band combinations (e.g., UE feature sets)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Tseng into Xue for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the feedback information about the given component carrier is one or more of: a HARQ ACK/NACK feedback for a transmission, a new component carrier based feedback, any other data received on the PSFCH (Xue – Fig. 12; Paragraph [0106], note for a particular SL transmission from the UE 1204 to the UE 1206 may select 1210 SL resources (e.g., PSSCH resources) for a SL transmission and a PSFCH resource sub-pool for receiving HARQ feedback related to the SL transmission).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to operate in a 5G new radio sidelink mode or in an LTE sidelink mode (Xue – Fig. 1; Paragraph [0039], note a link between a UE 104 and a base station 102 or 180 may be established as an access link, D2D communication may be through LTE or NR; Paragraph [0040], note although the following description, including the example slot structure of FIG. 2, may provide examples for sidelink communication in connection with 5G NR, the concepts described herein may be applicable to other similar areas, such as LTE, LTE-A, CDMA, GSM, and other wireless technologies).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the at least two component carriers lie in the same or in different frequency ranges or the carrier frequency is above or below a configured or preconfigured carrier frequency or aggregated carriers comprise an offset in frequency domain in-between the carriers (Xue – Paragraph [0043], note the base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to perform, while using carrier aggregation, one or more of: sensing or partial sensing based resource selection on a selected component carrier of the at least two component carriers, random resource selection on a selected component carrier of the at least two component carriers (Xue – Paragraph [0043], note the base stations 102/UEs 104 may use spectrum up to Y MHz (e.g., 5, 10, 15, 20, 100, 400, etc. MHz) bandwidth per carrier allocated in a carrier aggregation of up to a total of Yx MHz (x component carriers) used for transmission in each direction; Paragraph [0071], note as part of a sensing mechanism for resource allocation mode 2, the UE may determine (e.g., sense) whether the selected sidelink resource has been reserved by other UE(s) before selecting a sidelink resource for a data transmission).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the at least two component carriers lie within different bandwidth parts of different frequency ranges (Xue – Paragraph [0055], note within a set of frames, there may be one or more different bandwidth parts (BWPs) that are frequency division multiplexed, each BWP may have a particular numerology and CP).
Regarding claim 16, Xue does not teach wherein the transceiver is configured to perform a first proper subset of periodic transmissions using a first component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part and to perform a second proper subset of the periodic transmissions following the first proper subset of periodic transmissions using a second component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part.
In an analogous art, Tseng teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to perform a first proper subset of periodic transmissions using a first component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part and to perform a second proper subset of the periodic transmissions following the first proper subset of periodic transmissions using a second component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part (Tseng – Paragraph [0059], note the sidelink configuration 160 may include one or more Type 1 and/or Type 2 sidelink configured grant configurations, the Type 1 configured grant configuration, in some of the present implementations, may include a time periodicity (for periodic transmissions) and/or locations of physical resource blocks (corresponding to sidelink resource pools, see Paragraph [0098]) in the time domain and the frequency domain, the Type 2 configured grant configuration, in some of the present implementations, may include a time periodicity in the time domain).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Tseng into Xue for the same reason as claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein a transmission on the first component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part comprises an information describing the second component carrier or virtual resource pool or virtual bandwidth part (Xue – Paragraph [0109], note the multiple PSFCH resource sub-pools of a PSFCH resource pool for receiving HARQ feedback may be configured as described above in relation to FIG. 9 and configured via L3 messages (e.g., RRC and/or SIB signaling) as described in relation to FIG. 11 or pre-configured as described in relation to FIG. 12).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the virtual resource pool comprises one or more exceptional resource pools (Xue – Fig. 9; Paragraph [0088], note nested PSFCH (Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel) resource sub-pools for a particular PSFCH sub-pool 910, the nested sub-pool structure includes PSFCH resource sub-pool defined at different levels of PSFCH resource pool partitioning).
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above, except the claim is written in a method claim format.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as claim 1 above, except the claim is written in a non-transitory computer-readable medium (CRM) claim format, which is taught by Xue (Xue – Fig. 22; Paragraph [0166], note the cellular baseband processor 2204 may include a computer-readable medium/memory, the computer-readable medium/memory may be non-transitory, the cellular baseband processor 2204 is responsible for general processing, including the execution of software stored on the computer-readable medium/memory).
Claims 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xue in view of Tseng as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hosseini et al. (US 2022/0190966 A1), hereinafter referred to as Hosseini.
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Xue and Tseng does not teach wherein the transceiver is configured to select the at least two component carriers out of the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool for carrier aggregation based on a selection criterion.
In an analogous art, Hosseini teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to select the at least two component carriers out of the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool for carrier aggregation based on a selection criterion (Hosseini – Paragraph [0089], note multiple sidelink resource pools or sidelink component carriers may be used for carrying the sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback, the specific sidelink resource pool or sidelink component carrier associated with the indication may be selected from a group of sidelink component carriers that are configured to potentially carry the sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback; Paragraph [0094], note the sidelink component carrier selected by the first UE may correspond to an initial sidelink component carrier used for discovery and link setup, a sidelink component carrier associated with a smallest index, or an associated PSFCH configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Hosseini into the combination of Xue and Tseng in order to select sidelink component carriers for feedback based on various criteria, improving flexibility (Hosseini – Paragraphs [0091]-[0098]).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Xue and Tseng, specifically Xue teaches wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a control information describing the at least two component carriers out of the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool to be used by the transceiver for carrier aggregation (Xue – Paragraph [0089], note a device may receive a configuration 960 of the nested PSFCH resource pools and a set of identifiers/indexes for each partition defined in the nested sub-pools, the configuration may be a pre-configuration, e.g., for Mode 1 or Mode 2 SL resource reservation, the configuration may also be a configuration received from a base station, e.g., via RRC or system information blocks (SIBs) (e.g., for a Mode 1 SL resource selection)).
The combination of Xue and Tseng does not teach wherein the at least two component carriers are selected out of the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool based on a selection criterion, wherein the transceiver is configured to select the at least two component carriers described by the control information.
In an analogous art, Hosseini teaches wherein the at least two component carriers are selected out of the plurality of component carriers of the virtual resource pool based on a selection criterion, wherein the transceiver is configured to select the at least two component carriers described by the control information (Hosseini – Paragraph [0089], note when multiple sidelink resource pools or sidelink component carriers may be used for carrying the sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback, a mapping between the multiple sidelink resource pools or sidelink component carriers and a specific sidelink resource pool or sidelink component carrier assigned to carry the sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback may be indicated to the UE, the specific sidelink resource pool or sidelink component carrier associated with the indication may be selected from a group of sidelink component carriers that are configured to potentially carry the sidelink HARQ-ACK feedback; Paragraph [0094], note the sidelink component carrier selected by the first UE may correspond to an initial sidelink component carrier used for discovery and link setup, a sidelink component carrier associated with a smallest index, or an associated PSFCH configuration).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Hosseini into the combination of Xue and Tseng for the same reason as claim 14 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yeo et al. (US 2020/0106566 A1) discloses virtual resource block to physical resource block mapping, carrier aggregation, resource pool for PSFCH.
Kim (US 2020/0275412 A1) discloses sidelink carrier aggregation and allocating multiple resource pools for PSFCH and PSSCH.
Elshafie et al. (US 2023/0354272 A1) discloses selecting resource pools for PSFCH communications.
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/BAILOR C HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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