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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 4, 6-8, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 31, 33, and 34 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al (US 20230300935) in view of Xu et al (US 20210100059).
As to claim 1 and 31 Hu discloses one or more processors of a first user equipment (UE) and a method; the processors configured to perform operations comprising (Hu 408 of Fig.4, ¶0058-¶0059): receiving a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) from a second user equipment (UE) (Hu 202 of Fig.2 ¶0037- 1st sentence- in response to detecting a beam failure on sidelink between a Tx UE and an Rx UE (e.g., when one of the conditions described above is met), the Tx UE may transmit a beam failure recovery query (BFRQ) to the Rx UE on at least one candidate beam at step 202. ), the BFRQ comprising an indication of at least one candidate beam for a sidelink interface between a first UE and the second UE (Hu ¶0040,¶0041- 1st sentence- In order to receive the BFRQ transmitted on the at least one candidate beam, the Rx UE needs to monitor sidelink transmission(s) on the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams (i.e., performing reception using the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams) before beam failure declaration ; selecting a beam from the at least one candidate beams (Hu ¶0040- last sentences- After receiving the BFRQ from the Tx UE on at least one candidate beam, the Rx UE may measure a CSI measurement (e.g., CSI-RSRP) for each CSI-RS included in the received BFRQ corresponding to each of the at least one candidate beam, and transmit a beam failure recovery response (BFRR) to the Tx UE in response to the BFRQ at step 204. The BFRR may include at least one CSI report, and each CSI report indicates a CSI measurement corresponding to a candidate beam; and causing transmission of a beam failure recovery response (BFRR) to the second UE (Hu 204 of Fig.2), the BFRR comprising an indication of the selected beam (Hu ¶0045- After receiving the BFRQ from the Tx UE on at least one candidate beam, the Rx UE may measure a CSI measurement (e.g., CSI-RSRP) for each CSI-RS included in the received BFRQ corresponding to each of the at least one candidate beam, and transmit a beam failure recovery response (BFRR) to the Tx UE in response to the BFRQ at step 204. The BFRR may include at least one CSI report, and each CSI report indicates a CSI measurement corresponding to a candidate beam).
Hu however is silent where the selection is of a ‘beam pair’ from a candidate of ‘beam pairs’- in other words a transmitter beam from a transmitter UE to a receiver UE and a receiver beam from the receiver UE to the transmitter UE. However, in an analogous art Xu remedies this deficiency: Xu ¶0245- last sentence- The transmitter wireless device 2310 may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more transport blocks to the receiver wireless device 2320 via the transmission beam (e.g., beam 0). The receiver wireless device 2320 may receive the one or more transport blocks from the transmitter wireless device 2310 via the reception beam (e.g., beam 1). The transmission beam (e.g., beam 0) and the reception beam (e.g., beam 1) may be a beam pair for some communications (e.g., sidelink and/or between wireless devices) between the transmitter wireless device 2310 and the receiver wireless device 2320.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism
As to claims 3 and 33 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors and method of claims 1 and 33 respectively, wherein selecting the beam pair comprises: measuring a received signal power of the BFRQ; and selecting the beam pair in response to the received signal power of the BFRQ satisfying a threshold value (Hu ¶0041- last sentence- Tx UE may transmit an indication to the Rx UE to perform reception using the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams ergodically within a specified time window or periodically before beam failure declaration when one of the following conditions is met: Hu ¶0042- a CSI measurement (e.g., a reference signal received power (RSRP)) corresponding to a received CSI-RS is lower than a threshold; or [0043] a number of consecutive NACK feedbacks transmitted by the Rx UE reaches a threshold).
As to claims 4 and 34 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose one or more processors and method of claims 1 and 33 respectively, wherein selecting the beam pair comprises: storing received signal power information for the at least one candidate beam pair before receipt of the BFRQ; and selecting the beam pair from the at least one candidate beam pair based on the stored received signal power information, wherein the selected beam pair comprises a candidate beam pair associated with a greatest stored received signal power (Xu ¶0154-A wireless device may initiate/start/perform a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure, for example, based on detecting a beam failure. The wireless device may send/transmit a BFR request (e.g., a preamble, UCI, an SR, a MAC CE, and/or the like), for example, based on the initiating the BFR procedure. The wireless device may detect the beam failure, for example, based on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of an associated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error rate higher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower than a received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and/or the like). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 6 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of claim 1 wherein the selected beam pair is associated with a particular BFRR resource (Xu ¶0214-14th sentence- The SCIs may indicate resources that may be used and/or reserved for sidelink communication (e.g., transmissions). The wireless device (e.g., the transmitter wireless device 1710 and/or the receiver wireless device 1720) may select/determine resources within the selection window (e.g., resource that are different from the resources identified in the SCIs), and wherein the BFRR is transmitted to the second UE using the particular BFRR resource to indicate the selected beam pair. Xu ¶0214- last sentence- the SCI and/or the transport blocks to the receiver wireless device 1720. A beam failure recovery procedure may be used to recover the sidelink communication (e.g., with a beam pair of beam 0 and beam 1) between the transmitter wireless device 1710 and the receiver wireless device 1720). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 7 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of claim 1, wherein the BFRQ is received from the second UE via a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink interface (Xu Fig. 18 ¶0219- 5th sentence- The transmitter wireless device 1810 may send (e.g., transmit) one or more transport blocks via the PSSCH scheduled by the PSCCH to the receiver wireless device 1820. The transmitter wireless device 1810 may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more transport blocks to the receiver wireless device 1820 via the transmission beam (e.g., beam 0). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 8 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 1, wherein the BFRR is transmitted to the second UE via a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink interface (Xu ¶0222- 3rd sentence- The indication triggering the sending (e.g., transmission) of the one or more reference signals from the transmitter wireless device 1810 may be a beam management indication 1850 (BMI 1850). The receiver wireless device 1820 may send (e.g., transmit) the BMI 1850, which may trigger the transmission of the one or more reference signals from the transmitter wireless device 1810. The receiver wireless device 1820 may send (e.g., transmit) the indication (e.g., the BMI 1850) to the transmitter wireless device 1810 via at least one of a PSSCH) . Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 9 Hu discloses one or more processors of a first user equipment (UE) configured to perform operations comprising (Xu 308 of Fig.3, ¶0055): detecting failure of a serving beam for a sidelink interface between a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE; in response to detecting the failure, transmitting a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) to the second UE (Hu 202 of Fig.2 ¶0037- 1st sentence- in response to detecting a beam failure on sidelink between a Tx UE and an Rx UE (e.g., when one of the conditions described above is met), the Tx UE may transmit a beam failure recovery query (BFRQ) to the Rx UE on at least one candidate beam at step 202. ), the BFRQ comprising an indication of at least one candidate beam for the sidelink interface between the first UE and the second UE(Hu ¶0040,¶0041- 1st sentence- In order to receive the BFRQ transmitted on the at least one candidate beam, the Rx UE needs to monitor sidelink transmission(s) on the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams (i.e., performing reception using the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams) before beam failure declaration); and receiving a beam failure recovery response (BFRR) from the second UE(Hu 204 of Fig.2), the BFRR comprising an indication of a beam selected for the sidelink interface between the first UE and the second UE (Hu ¶0045- After receiving the BFRQ from the Tx UE on at least one candidate beam, the Rx UE may measure a CSI measurement (e.g., CSI-RSRP) for each CSI-RS included in the received BFRQ corresponding to each of the at least one candidate beam, and transmit a beam failure recovery response (BFRR) to the Tx UE in response to the BFRQ at step 204. The BFRR may include at least one CSI report, and each CSI report indicates a CSI measurement corresponding to a candidate beam).
Hu however is silent where the selection is of a ‘beam pair’ from a candidate of beam pairs- in other words a transmitter beam from a transmitter UE to a receiver UE and a receiver beam from the receiver UE to the transmitter UE. However, in an analogous art Xu remedies this deficiency: Xu ¶0245- last sentence- The transmitter wireless device 2310 may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more transport blocks to the receiver wireless device 2320 via the transmission beam (e.g., beam 0). The receiver wireless device 2320 may receive the one or more transport blocks from the transmitter wireless device 2310 via the reception beam (e.g., beam 1). The transmission beam (e.g., beam 0) and the reception beam (e.g., beam 1) may be a beam pair for some communications (e.g., sidelink and/or between wireless devices) between the transmitter wireless device 2310 and the receiver wireless device 2320.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism
As to claim 11 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of claim 9, wherein the beam pair is selected for the sidelink interface based on a received signal power of the BFRQ Hu ¶0041- last sentence- Tx UE may transmit an indication to the Rx UE to perform reception using the set of configured or preconfigured candidate beams ergodically within a specified time window or periodically before beam failure declaration when one of the following conditions is met: Hu ¶0042- a CSI measurement (e.g., a reference signal received power (RSRP)).
As to claim 12 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 9, wherein the beam pair is selected for the sidelink interface based on received power information recorded before receipt of the BFRQ(Xu ¶0154-A wireless device may initiate/start/perform a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure, for example, based on detecting a beam failure. The wireless device may send/transmit a BFR request (e.g., a preamble, UCI, an SR, a MAC CE, and/or the like), for example, based on the initiating the BFR procedure. The wireless device may detect the beam failure, for example, based on a determination that a quality of beam pair link(s) of an associated control channel is unsatisfactory (e.g., having an error rate higher than an error rate threshold, a received signal power lower than a received signal power threshold, an expiration of a timer, and/or the like) Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 14 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 9, wherein the BFRR is received from the second UE on a particular BFRR resource indicative of the selected beam pair(Xu ¶0214-14th sentence- The SCIs may indicate resources that may be used and/or reserved for sidelink communication (e.g., transmissions). The wireless device (e.g., the transmitter wireless device 1710 and/or the receiver wireless device 1720) may select/determine resources within the selection window (e.g., resource that are different from the resources identified in the SCIs). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 15 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 9, wherein the BFRQ is transmitted to the second UE via a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink interface (Xu Fig. 18 ¶0219- 5th sentence- The transmitter wireless device 1810 may send (e.g., transmit) one or more transport blocks via the PSSCH scheduled by the PSCCH to the receiver wireless device 1820. The transmitter wireless device 1810 may send (e.g., transmit) the one or more transport blocks to the receiver wireless device 1820 via the transmission beam (e.g., beam 0). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 16 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 9, wherein the BFRR is received from the second UE via a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink interface(Xu ¶0222- 3rd sentence- The indication triggering the sending (e.g., transmission) of the one or more reference signals from the transmitter wireless device 1810 may be a beam management indication 1850 (BMI 1850). The receiver wireless device 1820 may send (e.g., transmit) the BMI 1850, which may trigger the transmission of the one or more reference signals from the transmitter wireless device 1810. The receiver wireless device 1820 may send (e.g., transmit) the indication (e.g., the BMI 1850) to the transmitter wireless device 1810 via at least one of a PSSCH). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Hu with that of Xu for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
Claim(s) 2, 10, and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu in view of Xu and further in view of Zhou et al (US 20190110281).
As to claims 2 and 32 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors and method of claims 1 and 31 respectively, however silent where the operations further comprising: receiving an acknowledgement of the BFRR from the second UE; and in response to the acknowledgement, implementing the selected beam pair as a serving beam pair for the sidelink interface. However, in an analogous art Zhou remedies this deficiency: Zhou 0155- As shown by reference number 1720, based at least in part on receiving the BFRR via the second link, the second apparatus 1710 may transmit an acknowledgement (ACK), via the second link, to the first apparatus 1705. In some aspects, the first apparatus 1705 may prepare for a beam failure recovery procedure and/or a data communication based at least in part on receiving the ACK (e.g., by reserving one or more resources). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the combined teachings of Hu and Xu with that of Zhou for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 10 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of claim 9, however silent where the operations further comprising: transmitting an acknowledgement of the BFRR to the second UE; and implementing the beam pair as the serving beam pair for the sidelink interface. However, in an analogous art Zhou remedies this deficiency: Zhou 0155- As shown by reference number 1720, based at least in part on receiving the BFRR via the second link, the second apparatus 1710 may transmit an acknowledgement (ACK), via the second link, to the first apparatus 1705. In some aspects, the first apparatus 1705 may prepare for a beam failure recovery procedure and/or a data communication based at least in part on receiving the ACK (e.g., by reserving one or more resources). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the combined teachings of Hu and Xu with that of Zhou for a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
Claim(s) 5 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu in view of Xu and further in view of Sadiq et al (US 20190230529).
As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 1, however silent wherein the BFRR comprises a beam identifier or a beam pair identifier to indicate the selected beam pair. However, in an analogous art Sadiq remedies this deficiency: Sadiq ¶0033- penultimate sentence- the BFRR may explicitly convey the beam ID of the candidate beam that was being implicitly conveyed in the BFRR transmitted on first component carrier..). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Hu and Xu with that of Sadiq for the purpose of developing a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
As to claim 13 the combined teachings of Hu and Xu disclose the one or more processors of any of claim 9, however silent wherein the BFRR comprises a beam identifier or a beam pair identifier to indicate the selected beam pair. However, in an analogous art Sadiq remedies this deficiency: Sadiq ¶0033- penultimate sentence- the BFRR may explicitly convey the beam ID of the candidate beam that was being implicitly conveyed in the BFRR transmitted on first component carrier.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Hu and Xu with that of Sadiq for the purpose of developing a sidelink specific beam failure recovery mechanism.
Conclusion
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/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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