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 .
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 for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 filed on October 07, 2024 are pending.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) and certified copy of paper required by 37 CFR 1.55 is received.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 07, 2024 and August 21, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner and an initialed and dated copy of the Applicant’s IDS form 1449 is attached to the instant Office Action.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-9 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang").
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses a communication device that performs sidelink communication using an unlicensed band, the communication device comprising:
an acquisition unit that acquires information of a resource pool including one or a plurality of sidelink BWPs (Sidelink Bandwidth Parts) (Choi, abstract configuring a plurality of sidelink (SL) bandwidth parts (BWPs) used for SL communication between the first terminal and a second terminal); and
a communication control unit that performs, based on the information of the resource pool (Choi, abstract [0058] transmitting an SL BWP list including one or more SL BWPs among the plurality of SL BWPs to the second terminal), wherein the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs are set to correspond to one or a plurality of LBT bandwidths (Listen Before Talk Bandwidths) (Choi, [0081] The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband. An LBT operation may be performed for each LBT subband).
Choi discloses support unlicensed band communication band but does not explicitly disclose the sidelink communication using the unlicensed band.
Yang from the same field of endeavor discloses the sidelink communication using the unlicensed band (see table 1 and [0063] due to PSD specifications, a maximum power for 20 MHz in SL-U (i.e. sidelink unlicensed band) LPI mode).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified sidelink disclosed by Choi and SL-U disclosed by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to may boost coverage to and/or increase capacity of the access network (Yang, [0034]).
Regarding claim 2, Choi discloses wherein the resource pool includes a first sidelink BWP including one subchannel for a continuous waveform (Choi, [0081] one or more candidate SL BWPs as well as the default SL BWP may be preconfigured), and the first sidelink BWP is set such that the one subchannel configuring the first sidelink BWP corresponds to one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband).
Regarding claim 3, Choi discloses wherein the resource pool includes a second sidelink BWP including a plurality of subchannels for a continuous waveform (Choi, [0081] one or more candidate SL BWPs as well as the default SL BWP may be preconfigured), the second sidelink BWP is set such that each of the plurality of subchannels configuring the second sidelink BWP corresponds to one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband), and a guard band is provided between the plurality of subchannels configuring the second sidelink BWP (Choi, [0082] bandwidth of the RB set, information regarding a guard band(s) located between the RB sets, and the number of RB sets configured within the candidate SL BWP).
Regarding claim 4, Choi discloses wherein the resource pool includes a third sidelink BWP including one subchannel for a continuous waveform (Choi, [0081] one or more candidate SL BWPs as well as the default SL BWP may be preconfigured), and third sidelink BWP is set such that the one subchannel configuring the third sidelink BWP corresponds to a plurality of LBT bandwidths (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband).
Regarding claim 5, Choi discloses wherein the resource pool includes a fourth sidelink BWP including a plurality of subchannels for a continuous waveform (Choi, [0081] one or more candidate SL BWPs as well as the default SL BWP may be preconfigured), and the fourth sidelink BWP is set such that a continuous plurality of subchannels selected out of the plurality of subchannels configuring the fourth sidelink BWP corresponds to one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband).
Regarding claim 6, Choi discloses wherein the fourth sidelink BWP includes a plurality of the continuous plurality of subchannels corresponding to the one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband), and a guard band is provided between the continuous plurality of subchannels and other continuous plurality of the continuous subchannels (Choi, [0082] bandwidth of the RB set, information regarding a guard band(s) located between the RB sets, and the number of RB sets configured within the candidate SL BWP).
Regarding claim 7, Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the communication control unit performs repetition of a signal of a PSFCH in a frequency direction or sequence extension of a PSFCH format such that a bandwidth of the signal of the PSFCH becomes the LBT bandwidth when sidelink transmission of the signal of the PSFCH in a continuous waveform is performed based on the information of the
resource pool.
Yang from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the communication control unit performs repetition of a signal of a PSFCH in a frequency direction or sequence extension of a PSFCH format such that a bandwidth of the signal of the PSFCH becomes the LBT bandwidth when sidelink transmission of the signal of the PSFCH in a continuous waveform is performed based on the information of the
resource pool (Yang, [0044, 0055] the second UE based on the sidelink communication, a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), the PSFCH spanning multiple symbols in a time domain, including a set of repetitions in a frequency domain, or spanning more than one resource blocks (RBs); The position of any of the data, DMRS, SCI, feedback, gap symbols, and/or LBT symbols may be different than the example illustrated in FIG. 2. Multiple slots may be aggregated together in some aspects).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified sidelink disclosed by Choi and PSFCH repetition in frequency domain disclosed by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to transmit a PSFCH that spans from one RB to multiple RBs (Yang, [0063]).
Regarding claim 8, Choi discloses wherein the resource pool includes a fifth sidelink BWP including a plurality of subchannels for an interlaced waveform (Choi, [0081] one or more candidate SL BWPs as well as the default SL BWP may be preconfigured), and the fifth sidelink BWP is set such that a continuous plurality of subchannels selected out of the plurality of subchannels configuring the fifth sidelink BWP corresponds to one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband).
Regarding claim 9, Choi discloses wherein the fifth sidelink BWP includes a plurality of the continuous plurality of subchannels corresponding to the one LBT bandwidth (Choi, [0081] location information, and size information of the candidate SL BWPs; a plurality of resource block (RB) sets may be configured within the candidate SL BWP. The RB set may be a listen before talk (LBT) subband), and a guard band is provided between the continuous plurality of subchannels and other continuous plurality of the continuous subchannels (Choi, [0082] bandwidth of the RB set, information regarding a guard band(s) located between the RB sets, and the number of RB sets configured within the candidate SL BWP).
Regarding claims 18-20, these claims recite "a communication device", "a communication method executed by a communication device" and that disclose similar steps as recited by the device of claim 1, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claim 1 as presented above.
Claim(s) 10-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (US 2025/0097916 A1, hereinafter "Zhao").
Regarding claim 10, Choi does not explicitly disclose wherein the resource pool includes a first sub-resource pool including one or more sidelink BWPs for a continuous
waveform and a second sub-resource pool including one or more sidelink BWPs for an interlaced waveform, and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the continuous waveform and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the interlaced waveform are respectively set to correspond to one or a plurality of LBT bandwidths.
Zhao from the same field of endeavor discloses wherein the resource pool includes a first sub-resource pool including one or more sidelink BWPs for a continuous waveform and a second sub-resource pool including one or more sidelink BWPs for an interlaced waveform, and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the continuous waveform and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the interlaced waveform are respectively set to correspond to one or a plurality of LBT bandwidths (Zhao, [0053; 0063] the quantity of the sub-channels and the quantity of IRB indexes included in a given LBT sub-band (for example, 20 MHz) are the same, it may be determined that the mapping relationship between the sub-channel and the IRB is a one-to-one mapping relationship, that is, one IRB index is mapped to one sub-channel; the sub-channel is a continuous PRB set. It is assumed that a sub-channel includes a quantity N of continuous PRBs, the IRB is a distributed PRB set with equal spaces, and the quantity of resource blocks spaced between two continuous interlaced resource blocks is M. In the embodiments of the present application, the design of Rel−16 NR V2X may be continued to be used, and the frequency domain resource allocation field in the DCI indicates a size (and/or a position) of the frequency domain resource for the current sidelink transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Zhao’s system for continuous and interlaced waveform into Choi’s sidelink communication as modified by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to support higher and higher requirements for performance such as transmission bandwidth, communication rate, communication delay, reliability, expandability (Zhao, [0003]).
Regarding claim 11, Choi does not explicitly disclose the communication control unit performs, based on at least one of the information of the first resource pool and
the information of the second resource pool, sidelink communication using an unlicensed band.
Yang from the same field of endeavor discloses the sidelink communication using the unlicensed band (see table 1 and [0063] due to PSD specifications, a maximum power for 20 MHz in SL-U (i.e. sidelink unlicensed band) LPI mode).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified sidelink disclosed by Choi and SL-U disclosed by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to may boost coverage to and/or increase capacity of the access network (Yang, [0034]).
Choi in view of Yang does not explicitly disclose the acquisition unit acquires information of a first resource pool including one or a plurality of sidelink BWPs for a continuous waveform and information of a second resource pool including one or a plurality of sidelink BWPs for an interlaced waveform, the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the continuous waveform and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the interlaced waveform are respectively set to correspond to one or a plurality of LBT bandwidths.
Zhao from the same field of endeavor discloses the acquisition unit acquires information of a first resource pool including one or a plurality of sidelink BWPs for a continuous waveform and information of a second resource pool including one or a plurality of sidelink BWPs for an interlaced waveform, the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the continuous waveform and the one or the plurality of sidelink BWPs for the interlaced waveform are respectively set to correspond to one or a plurality of LBT bandwidths (Zhao, [0053; 0063] the quantity of the sub-channels and the quantity of IRB indexes included in a given LBT sub-band (for example, 20 MHz) are the same, it may be determined that the mapping relationship between the sub-channel and the IRB is a one-to-one mapping relationship, that is, one IRB index is mapped to one sub-channel; the sub-channel is a continuous PRB set. It is assumed that a sub-channel includes a quantity N of continuous PRBs, the IRB is a distributed PRB set with equal spaces, and the quantity of resource blocks spaced between two continuous interlaced resource blocks is M. In the embodiments of the present application, the design of Rel−16 NR V2X may be continued to be used, and the frequency domain resource allocation field in the DCI indicates a size (and/or a position) of the frequency domain resource for the current sidelink transmission).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Zhao’s system for continuous and interlaced waveform into Choi’s sidelink communication as modified by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to support higher and higher requirements for performance such as transmission bandwidth, communication rate, communication delay, reliability, expandability (Zhao, [0003]).
Regarding claim 12, Choi discloses a continues waveform and Yang discloses a interlaced waveform but does not explicitly disclose the communication control unit is capable of performing both of sidelink communication using a continuous waveform and sidelink communication using an interlaced waveform.
Zhao from the same field of endeavor discloses the communication control unit is capable of performing both of sidelink communication using a continuous waveform and sidelink communication using an interlaced waveform (Zhao, [0055] a given LBT sub-band includes M sub-channels and N IRBs, a one-to-one mapping rule from continuous resource blocks (RBs) in an LBT sub-band to distributed RBs in a sub-band may be established, and each physical resource block (PRB) in a sub-channel may be mapped to a specific PRB in the IRB according to the above mapping rule).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Zhao’s system for continuous and interlaced waveform into Choi’s sidelink communication as modified by Yang with a motivation to make this modification in order to support higher and higher requirements for performance such as transmission bandwidth, communication rate, communication delay, reliability, expandability (Zhao, [0003]).
Claim(s) 13 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (US 2025/0097916 A1, hereinafter "Zhao") and Shin et al. (US 11,540,307 B2, hereinafter "Shin").
Regarding claim 13, Zhao discloses the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform but does not explicitly disclose the communication control unit switches, based on an instruction from another communication device, the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform.
Shin from the same field of endeavor discloses the communication control unit switches, based on an instruction from another communication device, the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform (Shin, Col. 40 line 54-56 LBT sub-band configuration… dynamic switching between interlaced mapping and contiguous mapping may be allowed and/or indicated (by DCI); Col. 60 line 42-48 in Embodiments 1 to 5 of the present disclosure may be equally/similarly applied when a sequence used for communication between UEs (e.g., device-to-device (D2D) communication) and/or communication between vehicles (e.g., vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication) through sidelink).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Shin’s system for dynamic switching continuous and interlaced waveform into Choi’s sidelink communication as modified by Yang and Zhao with a motivation to make this modification in order to transmit an uplink channel efficiently in a wireless communication system (Shin, Col. 1).
Regarding claim 16, Zhao discloses the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform but does not explicitly disclose the communication control unit switches between sidelink communication using a continuous waveform and sidelink communication using an interlaced waveform according to a physical channel of the sidelink communication.
Shin from the same field of endeavor discloses the communication control unit switches between sidelink communication using a continuous waveform and sidelink communication using an interlaced waveform according to a physical channel of the sidelink communication (Shin, Col. 39 line 1-7 There are largely two types of UL channels and/or signals supported in NR-U, one of two types is a channel and/or signal based on a (PRB-level) contiguous mapping method available in an area that does not need to satisfy power spectral density (PSD) and occupied channel bandwidth (OCB) requirements).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have to include the teachings of Shin’s system for dynamic switching continuous and interlaced waveform into Choi’s sidelink communication as modified by Yang and Zhao with a motivation to make this modification in order to transmit an uplink channel efficiently in a wireless communication system (Shin, Col. 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 14-15 and 17 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 14 is potentially allowable over the prior art of record Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (US 2025/0097916 A1, hereinafter "Zhao") and Shin et al. (US 11,540,307 B2, hereinafter "Shin") as applied to the claim above.
Choi in view of Yang, Zhao and Shin fails to teach alone or in combination "the communication control unit switches, based on information concerning a distance of the sidelink communication, the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform".
Claim 15 is potentially allowable over the prior art of record Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (US 2025/0097916 A1, hereinafter "Zhao") and Shin et al. (US 11,540,307 B2, hereinafter "Shin") as applied to the claim above.
Choi in view of Yang, Zhao and Shin fails to teach alone or in combination "the communication control unit switches, according to a cast type of the sidelink communication, the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform".
Claim 17 is potentially allowable over the prior art of record Choi et al. (US 2020/0288434 A1, hereinafter "Choi") in view of Yang et al.( US 2025/0142591 A1, hereinafter "Yang") as applied to claim above, and further in view of Zhao et al. (US 2025/0097916 A1, hereinafter "Zhao") and Shin et al. (US 11,540,307 B2, hereinafter "Shin") as applied to the claim above.
Choi in view of Yang, Zhao and Shin fails to teach alone or in combination "the communication control unit switches, according to capability of a communication device serving as a communication partner of the sidelink communication, the sidelink communication using the continuous waveform and the sidelink communication using the interlaced waveform".
Conclusion
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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