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 .
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 17-28 and 30 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.
Claims 17 and 30 require a second UE to obtain side information associated with the second UE (i.e. itself). It is unclear what is being claimed as it is unclear how a device obtains information (side information) from itself.
Appropriate correction required.
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, 2, 5-10, 13, 16-25, 28-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oteri et al. “Oteri” US 2025/0274897 in view of Kim et al. “Kim” US 2022/0394697.
Regarding claims 1 and 29, Oteri teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a first user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory (memory 210 and processor 205 of Figure 2) and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is configured to:
receive an indication to operate in at least one of a time domain (TD) beam prediction mode or a spatial domain (SD) beam prediction mode, wherein the indication is received from a first network entity (beam management is used for dictating spatial and/or time domain for beam predictions; Paragraph 2. Paragraph 105 and step 920 of Figure 9 teaches the UE sending a request for reference signals for beam management and receiving configurations from the LMF (Step 925 and paragraph 107. The LMF is the first network entity). This reception of configuration information for beam management is the indication to operate in at least one of the time/spatial domain beam prediction mode);
estimate one or more channel characteristics for a first set of downlink (DL) reference signals (RSs) based on at least one of the TD beam prediction mode or the SD beam prediction mode (the UE estimates the channel response for the DL RS; Paragraph 108, step 930 of Figure 9. The channel response is with respect to DL RS; Paragraph 105).
Oteri does not expressly disclose receiving side information associated with a second UE and performing estimation of channel characteristics based on the side information; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include performing measurements/estimations based on side information associated with a second UE as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 2, Oteri teaches the first network function is a base station and the second network entity is a LMF (Figure 1 shows base station 120A and LMF 131).
Regarding claim 5, Oteri teaches transmitting an indication of the estimation of the channel characteristics (935 of Figure 9 and paragraph 109 teach providing the channel response estimation to the LMF).
Regarding claim 6, Oteri does not expressly disclose the side information is received via RRC, MAC-CE, or DCI; however, Kim teaches the use of SCI/DCI, MAC and RRC (paragraphs 22 and 79).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include performing the side information being transmit in DCI/MAC/RRC as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 7, Oteri does not expressly disclose the side information includes historical or predicted characteristics of the RS; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information has RSRP as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 8, Oteri does not expressly disclose the side information includes historical or predicted characteristics which is RSRP; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information has RSRP as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 9, Oteri does not expressly disclose the first and second profiles include a second resource; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213. RSRP has corresponding resources; Paragraph 185.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the first/second profiles have a first/second resource as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 10, Oteri does not expressly disclose receiving side information via a sidelink transmission from a second UE; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating (sidelink), wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information is sent via sidelink communications as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 13, Oteri teaches LTE LPP; Paragraph 75.
Regarding claim 16, Oteri does not teach the side information is broadcast or multicast; however, Kim teaches the use of a physical SL broadcast channel; Paragraph 84.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information is sent as a broadcast communications as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the UE has the information necessary for proper transmission/reception as taught by Kim; Paragraph 84.
Regarding claims 17 and 30, Oteri teaches an apparatus for wireless communication at a second user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory (memory 210 and processor 205 of Figure 2) and, based at least in part on information stored in the memory, the at least one processor is configured to:
Obtain information with respect to a time domain (TD) beam prediction mode or a spatial domain (SD) beam prediction mode, (beam management is used for dictating spatial and/or time domain for beam predictions; Paragraph 2. Paragraph 105 and step 920 of Figure 9 teaches the UE sending a request for reference signals for beam management and receiving configurations from the LMF (Step 925 and paragraph 107. The LMF is the first network entity). This reception of configuration information for beam management is the indication to operate in at least one of the time/spatial domain beam prediction mode);
Oteri does not expressly disclose obtaining/transmitting side information associated with a second UE and performing estimation of channel characteristics based on the side information; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management; Paragraph 213. As two UEs are communicating, the information is side information. Further, for a device to transmit the information it must obtain it to transmit it.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include obtaining/transmitting side information associated with a second UE as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 18, Oteri teaches receiving an indication to transmit information wherein the indication is received periodically, semi-periodically, or aperiodically (Figure shows a request for information for receiving configuration information with respect to reference signals. The RS information can be periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent; Paragraph 52. The request is the indication to transmit).
Regarding claim 19, Oteri does not teach an indication for the side information is broadcast or multicast; however, Kim teaches the use of a physical SL broadcast channel; Paragraph 84.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information is sent as a broadcast communications as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the UE has the information necessary for proper transmission/reception as taught by Kim; Paragraph 84.
Regarding claim 20, Oteri does not expressly disclose the side information includes historical or predicted characteristics of the RS; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information has RSRP as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 21, Oteri does not expressly disclose the side information includes historical or predicted characteristics which is RSRP; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information has RSRP as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 22, Oteri does not expressly disclose the first and second profiles include a second resource; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating, wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management. This information includes RSRP; Paragraph 213. RSRP has corresponding resources; Paragraph 185.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the first/second profiles have a first/second resource as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 23, Oteri does not expressly disclose receiving side information via a sidelink transmission from a second UE; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating (sidelink), wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management; Paragraph 213.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information is sent via sidelink communications as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 24, Oteri does not expressly disclose receiving side information via an uplink transmission; however, Kim teaches a first and second UE communicating (sidelink), wherein the UE can measure reference signals corresponding to the information with respect to beam management; Paragraph 213 Further yet, the communications can include uplink as well; Paragraph 216.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include the side information is sent via uplink communications as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that quality information with respect to SL signals and reference signals can be computed with respect to beams/beam management as taught by Kim; Paragraph 213.
Regarding claim 25, Oteri teaches an indication of an estimate one or more channel characteristics for a first set of downlink (DL) reference signals (RSs) based on at least one of the TD beam prediction mode or the SD beam prediction mode (the UE estimates the channel response for the DL RS; Paragraph 108, step 930 of Figure 9. The channel response is with respect to DL RS; Paragraph 105. This estimate is provided (indication) in step 935).
Regarding claim 28, Oteri does not teach the second UE is a RSU or smart repeater; however, Kim teaches road side unit; Paragraph 245.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Oteri to include a road side unit as taught by Kim.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that beam management can be performed with respect to V2X as taught by Kim; Paragraph 15.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oteri in view of Kim and further in view of Park et al. “Park” US 2021/0360594.
Regarding claim 3, the prior art does not teach receiving multiple sets of RS and measuring one set which is used to estimate the channel characteristics of the first set; however, Park teaches that a wireless device measures a DL RS and can estimate the pathloss based on the measured value; Paragraph 299. This is with respect to a spatial domain beam.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include estimating channel characteristics based on measured information related to DL RS as taught by Park.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can improve beam control efficiency as taught by Park; Paragraph 299.
Claim(s) 4, 26 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oteri in view of Kim and further in view of Jung et al. “Jung” US 2021/0306886.
Regarding claim 4, while the prior art talks about AI/MI prediction models, the prior art does not expressly disclose applying the prediction model to side information to predict channel characteristics. Jung teaches a UE sending a sidelink QoS prediction to a network entity (step 1350 paragraph 173. The network entity (third network entity) sends a SL prediction response to the UE which the UE uses (i.e. applies) to perform it’s own channel/quality prediction; Paragraphs 176-178 (Step 1360 of Figure 13).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include estimating channel characteristics by utilizing a prediction model as taught by Jung.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the UE can perform autonomous UE prediction using the prediction model and model parameters of the UE as taught by Jung; Paragraph 178.
Regarding claim 26, while the prior art talks about AI/MI prediction models, the prior art does not expressly disclose applying the prediction model to side information to predict channel characteristics. Jung teaches a UE sending a sidelink QoS prediction to a network entity (step 1350 paragraph 173. The network entity (third network entity) sends a SL prediction response to the UE which the UE uses (i.e. applies) to perform it’s own channel/quality prediction; Paragraphs 176-178 (Step 1360 of Figure 13).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include estimating channel characteristics by utilizing a prediction model as taught by Jung.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the UE can perform autonomous UE prediction using the prediction model and model parameters of the UE as taught by Jung; Paragraph 178.
Claim(s) 11, 12, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oteri in view of Kim and further in view of Zhao US 2025/0063600.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art discusses sidelink communications as shown in claim 1. Oteri further teaches that positioning information is transmit between the network entity and UE when performing a positioning capability exchange; Paragraphs 102 and 107. The prior art does not expressly disclose the side information includes position, mobility, or location received from the second network entity; however, Zhao the UE receives SCI and can obtain location information of the second terminal device; Paragraph 51.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include the side information has location information as taught by Zhao.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the location of the UEs can be determined and a COT initiated as taught by Zhao; Paragraph 51.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art does not expressly disclose the location information includes at least one of a second location information of a set of UEs wherein the set of UEs includes the second UE; however, Zhao the UE receives SCI and can obtain location information of the second terminal device. The location information is known for a plurality of UEs (First and second); Paragraph 51.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include location information for multiple UEs as taught by Zhao.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the location of the UEs can be determined and a COT initiated as taught by Zhao; Paragraph 51.
Claim(s) 14, 15, 27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oteri in view of Kim and further in view of Liu US 2021/0113997.
Regarding claim 14, the prior art does not teach receiving a decoder from the network entity and decompressing the side information; however, Liu teaches a first indication is received which includes system parameter information which is used by the receive end device to decode information carried on the SL; Paragraph 158 and 180.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include receiving decoder and decompressing the side information as taught by Liu.
One would be motivated to make the modification such the receiving device can properly decode the information received as taught by Liu; Paragraph 158.
Regarding claim 15, the prior art does not teach receiving an encoder from the network entity and decompressing the side information; however, Liu teaches a first indication is received which includes system parameter information which is used by the receive end device to decode information carried on the SL; Paragraph 158 and 180. Further, the devices can encode the SL information based on the system parameter information as well; Paragraph 261.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include an encoder and decompressing the side information as taught by Liu.
One would be motivated to make the modification such the receiving device can properly decode the information received as taught by Liu; Paragraph 158.
Regarding claim 27, the prior art does not teach receiving an encoder from the network entity and decompressing the side information; however, Liu teaches a first indication is received which includes system parameter information which is used by the receive end device to decode information carried on the SL; Paragraph 158 and 180. Further, the devices can encode the SL information based on the system parameter information as well; Paragraph 261.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include an encoder and decompressing the side information as taught by Liu.
One would be motivated to make the modification such the receiving device can properly decode the information received as taught by Liu; Paragraph 158.
Conclusion
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/BRANDON M RENNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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