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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/10/2024 and 06/12/2025 were filed for consideration. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
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 1-7, 10-12 and 25-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HU; Liang et al. (US 2023/0199770 A1), hereinafter, “Hu” in view of Bae et.al (US 12495418 B2), hereinafter, “Bae”.
Regarding claims 1 and 27, Hu discloses: A method for configuring resources performed by a network device (Hu: para [0091], where. describe “a method and an apparatus are provided for performing SL communications over an unlicensed band using a frequency interlaced design to meet OCB requirements”), comprising: determining a size of a resource granularity (Hu: fig 4, para [0120], where, “the interlace could be defined on another resource granularity, rather than a single RB, (e.g., a group of RBs or a fraction of a RBs (e.g., ½ RB))”); and
determining configuration information of at least one sub-channel according to the size of the resource granularity and a mapping rule between sub-channels and interlaced resource block indexes (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”);
wherein configuration information of each of the at least one sub-channel (Hu: fig 1, para [0017], where, “The configuration of the interlace structure is consistent among PUCCH and PUSCH configurations, i.e., if a PUCCH frequency domain is configured with the interlace structure, then a PUSCH is also configured with the interlace structure, [0018] For SCS=15 kHz and SCS=30 kHz, the total number of available interlaces M is 10 and 5, respectively”) indicates the number and positions of interlaced resource block indexes configured for the corresponding sub-channel channel (Hu: fig 1-2, para [0013]-[0014] and para [0020], where, determined the number of total interlaced resource blocks with corresponding indexes and position/location of start BWP); and
Hu does not explicitly teach: the number of resource blocks between two consecutive interlaced resource blocks comprised in the same interlaced resource block index is M, and the M is determined by a size of a subcarrier spacing.
Bae teaches: the number of resource blocks between two consecutive interlaced resource blocks comprised in the same interlaced resource block index is M, and the M is determined by a size of a subcarrier spacing (Bae: fig 7 and fig 8a-b, Sections: (109), where, “An interlaced RB within BWP i and interlace m, n.sup.u.sub.IRB,m∈{0, 1, . . . } and a CRB n.sup.u.sub.CRB may be determined by the following: n.sup.u.sub.CRB=M*n.sup.u.sub.IRB,m+N.sup.start, u.sub.BWP,i((m−N.sup.start,u.sub.BWP,i) mod M)”, section: (1320, where, “The UE determines a symbol duration for the SCS configuration of a DL BWP where the UE monitors a PDCCH for detection of DCI format 2_4”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use “the number of resource blocks between two consecutive interlaced resource blocks comprised in the same interlaced resource block index is M, and the M is determined by a size of a subcarrier spacing” as taught by Bae into Hu in order to the number of resource blocks between two consecutive interlaced resource blocks comprised in the same interlaced resource block index is M, and the M is determined by a size of a subcarrier spacing (Bae: section (47)).
Regarding claims 12-28, the claim includes features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 1 above. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 1 in order to define the corresponding method for information processing apparatus/terminal, and the rejection to claim 1 is applied hereto.
Regarding claims 25-26, the claim includes features identical to the subject matter mentioned in the rejection to claim 1 above. The claims are mere reformulation of claim 1 in order to define the corresponding communication apparatus, and the rejection to claim 1 is applied hereto. Additionally, the claim includes a memory and a processor. However, Hu discloses the memory and the processor (Hu: fig 15, para [0206]).
Regarding claim 2, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the configuration information of the at least one sub-channel according to the size of the resource granularity and the mapping rule between sub-channels and interlaced resource block indexes (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”), comprises: determining the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in each sub-channel according to the size of the resource granularity (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”); and determining positions of the interlaced resource block indexes mapped for each sub-channel according to the mapping rule between sub-channels and interlaced resource block indexes (Bae: fig 7 and fig 8a-b, Sections: (109), where, “An interlaced RB within BWP i and interlace m, n.sup.u.sub.IRB,m∈{0, 1, . . . } and a CRB n.sup.u.sub.CRB may be determined by the following: n.sup.u.sub.CRB=M*n.sup.u.sub.IRB,m+N.sup.start, u.sub.BWP,i((m−N.sup.start,u.sub.BWP,i) mod M)”, section: (1320, where, “The UE determines a symbol duration for the SCS configuration of a DL BWP where the UE monitors a PDCCH for detection of DCI format 2_4”).
Regarding claim 3, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the size of the resource granularity (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”); comprises: determining the size of the resource granularity according to the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in a sub-channel (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”); or determining the size of the resource granularity according to the number of sub-channels comprised in a listen-before-talk (LBT) sub-band.
Regarding claim 4, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 1, wherein the mapping rule between sub-channels and interlaced resource block indexes (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”) is that starting from a first interlaced resource block index in an LBT sub-band, and in a sequence of serial numbers of interlaced resource block indexes in the LBT sub-band from small to large, one or more interlaced resource blocks are mapped to a sub-channel (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”).
Regarding claim 5, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 4, wherein the mapping rule between sub- channels and interlaced resource block indexes is that the sub-channel comprises ml interlaced resource block indexes, and the sub-channel is mapped to ml consecutive interlaced resource block indexes (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”); wherein the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in the LBT sub-band is ml times the number of sub-channels comprised in the LBT sub-band, and ml is a positive integer greater than 1 and less than or equal to the M (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”).
Regarding claim 6, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 4, wherein the mapping rule between sub- channels and interlaced resource block indexes is that the sub-channel comprises ml interlaced resource block indexes (Hu: fig 4, para [0120]-[0122], where, “more than 1 frequency interlaces can be (pre-)defined as a “virtual subchannel”, depending on the size of a “virtual subchannel”. The mapping between an interlace and sub-channels can be pre-configured or RRC configured for each resource pool”), and the sub-channel is mapped to ml non-consecutive interlaced resource block indexes; wherein the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in the LBT sub-band is ml times the number of sub-channels comprised in the LBT sub-band (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”), and ml is a positive integer greater than 1 and less than the M (Hu: fig 4, para [0119], where, “a first interlace will occupy RBs (0, M, 2M, . . . , (K−1)*M) and interlace i would occupy RBs, i, (i+M, . . . , i+(K−1)*M). Generally speaking, an interlace may be defined by an offset value (between 0 and M−1) that indicates the first RB used in the frequency”).
Regarding claim 7, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 6, wherein the sub-channel being mapped to ml non-consecutive interlaced resource block indexes comprises: the sub-channel being mapped to ml interlaced resource block indexes with odd serial numbers ; the sub-channel being mapped to ml interlaced resource block indexes with even serial numbers; or the sub-channel being mapped to ml interlaced resource block indexes, wherein a difference between serial numbers of adjacent interlaced resource block indexes in the ml interlaced resource block indexes is xl, where the xl is the number of sub-channels comprised in the LBT sub-band (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”), and the xl is an integer less than the M (Hu: fig 4, para [0119], where, “a first interlace will occupy RBs (0, M, 2M, . . . , (K−1)*M) and interlace i would occupy RBs, i, (i+M, . . . , i+(K−1)*M). Generally speaking, an interlace may be defined by an offset value (between 0 and M−1) that indicates the first RB used in the frequency”).
Regarding claim 10, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 4, wherein the mapping rule between sub- channels and interlaced resource block indexes is that remaining interlaced resource blocks in the LBT sub-band that cannot form a complete sub-channel are combined with remaining interlaced resource blocks in other LBT sub-bands to form a complete sub-channel (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”).
Regarding claim 11, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The method according to claim 10, wherein the remaining interlaced resource blocks in the LBT sub-band that cannot form a complete sub-channel being combined with the remaining interlaced resource blocks in other LBT sub-bands to form a complete sub-channel (Hu: fig 4, para [0136], where, “the PSCCH is located on a subset of the PRBs used for the PSSCH (i.e., depending on configuration) and is located in the first subchannel in case the -LIE transmission occupies multiple subchannels. However, such a structure cannot be exactly reused for an interlaced PSSCH, and thus a new PSCCH structure, as well as new rules for linking a PSCCH to its associated PSSCH are needed”) comprises: the remaining interlaced resource blocks in the LBT sub-band that cannot form a complete sub-channel being combined with interlaced resource blocks in an adjacent LBT sub-band to form a complete sub-channel (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”); or respective remaining interlaced resource blocks in a plurality of LBT sub-bands being combined to form a complete sub-channel, wherein each of the plurality of LBT sub-bands comprises at least one complete sub-channel.
Regarding claim 29, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The communication apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the processor is configured to: starting from a first interlaced resource block index in an LBT sub-band, and in a sequence of serial numbers of interlaced resource block indexes in the LBT sub-band from small to large, map one or more interlaced resource blocks to a sub-channel (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”).
Regarding claim 30, Hu modified by Bae disclose: The communication apparatus according to claim 29, wherein the processor is configured to: map the sub-channel to ml consecutive interlaced resource block indexes, wherein the sub-channel comprises ml interlaced resource block indexes, the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in the LBT sub-band is ml times the number of sub-channels comprised in the LBT sub-band (Hu: fig 8, para [0144], where, “The first time period may be adjacent to the second time period in order to reduce LBT delay. For example, a single LBT may be performed before the first and second time periods for the transmission of the PSCCH and the PSSCH”), and the ml is a positive integer greater than 1 and less than or equal to the M (Hu: fig 4, para [0119], where, “a first interlace (i.e., I(0)) will occupy the first RB (i.e., RB0) in each of the K clusters. As such, a first interlace will occupy RBs (0, M, 2M, . . . , (K−1)*M) and interlace i would occupy RBs, i, (i+M, . . . , i+(K−1)*M).”);
or map the sub-channel to ml non-consecutive interlaced resource block indexes, wherein the sub-channel comprises ml interlaced resource block indexes, the number of interlaced resource block indexes comprised in the LBT sub-band is ml times the number of sub-channels comprised in the LBT sub-band, and the ml is a positive integer greater than 1 and less than the M.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-9 and 31-32 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.
Conclusion
Prior Art considered but not used: XU; Huilin et al. (US 20230007515 A1), “ULCI TRIGGERED CLI MEASUREMENT”.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NIZAM U AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-9561. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fry, 7:00 AM-6:00 PM PST.
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/NIZAM U AHMED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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