DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. This Office Action is in response to the application filed on 10/18/2024. Claims 1 and through 20 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
3. 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 13-18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2022/0417988 A1) in view of Sun et al. (US 2024/0064713 A1).
For claim 1 Wang teaches a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 9 “UE”), comprising:
at least one memory (Fig. 9 “UE: memory 904”); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (Fig. 9 “UE: memory 904 including instructions 906 coupled with processor 902”)and configured to cause the UE to:
perform a channel access procedure for initiating a channel occupancy time (COT) (Fig. 10 “perform a channel access procedure to acquire one or more channel occupancy times (COTs)”); and
transmit a sidelink control information (SCI) format within the COT in response to the channel access procedure being successful, wherein the SCI format comprises structure information of the COT (Fig. 10 “Transmit a COT sharing information (COT-SI)
configured to reserve the one or more COTs for a future transmission via the sidelink channel”, paragraph 68 “the SCI-1 405 may include information related to the time-frequency slot/subchannel structure associated with the reserved PSSCH sidelink data
transmission(s)”, and paragraph 69 “…the SCI-1 (SCI format) may be repurposed or re-interpreted to better represent the time frequency structure associated with the COT. SCI-1 (SCI format) carrying the COT-SI”).
Wang does not explicitly teach structure information of COT.
However, Sun teaches sidelink control information (SCI) including a COT structure indicator (COT-SI) indicating whether the COT sharing in the first COT is allowed.
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Sun in the COT-SI reservation of sidelink communication of Wang in order to determine whether COT sharing is allowed.
For claim 2 Wang teaches the UE, wherein the structure information of the COT indicates at least one of the following:
a first time domain resource reserved for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission, a second time domain resource occupied by the UE, a third time domain resource for a gap, a fourth time domain resource shared with a second UE, or a fifth time domain resource for automatic gain control (AGC) (paragraph 66 “time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field in the SCI-1 used for time domain or time location reservation and/or scheduling”, paragraph 55 “PSFCH, physical sidelink feedback control channel (PSFCH), which indicates an acknowledgement (ACK)-negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a previously transmitted PSSCH”, paragraph 88 “the COT-SI generated by the COT-initiating UE to reserve COTs for future use may be
transmitted via a gap symbol and/or an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol of the radio frame structure”).
For claim 3 Wang teaches the UE, wherein the SCI format is transmitted within the COT according to a period (paragraph 55 “resource reservation period…SCI format”); and
wherein the period is configured by a serving base station (BS) or predefined (paragraph 68 “base station schedules the number of COT-reservation”); or
For claim 4 Wang teaches the UE of claim 2, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to:
transmit a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) on the second time domain resource (paragraph 66 “time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field in the SCI-1 used for time domain or time location reservation and/or scheduling”, paragraph 55 “PSFCH, physical sidelink feedback control channel (PSFCH), which indicates an acknowledgement (ACK)-negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a previously transmitted PSSCH); and
receive a PSFCH on the first time domain resource carrying hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) feedback corresponding to the PSSCH (paragraph 66 “time domain resource allocation (TDRA) field in the SCI-1 used for time domain or time location reservation and/or scheduling”, paragraph 55 “PSFCH, physical sidelink feedback control channel (PSFCH), which indicates an acknowledgement (ACK)-negative acknowledgement (NACK) for a previously transmitted PSSCH).
For claim 6 Wang teaches the UE, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the UE to determine the structure information of the COT based on at least one of:
a transmission periodicity of the SCI format (paragraph 55 “SCI format”);
or
a number of symbols within a gap (paragraph 59 “the number of symbols in a slot may vary depending on the aspects (e.g., design options)”, paragraph 34 “COT-SI may be transmitted via a gap symbol (e.g., gap duration is a design option”).
For claim 13 Wang in view of Sun teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising:
at least one memory (as discussed in claim 1); and
at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (as discussed in claim 1) and configured to cause the UE to:
receive a first sidelink control information (SCI) format, wherein the first SCI format comprises structure information of a channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a first UE (as discussed in claim 1); and
perform a channel access procedure for a sidelink transmission within the COT based on the structure information (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 14 Wang teaches the UE, wherein the structure information of the COT indicates at least one of the following:
a first time domain resource reserved for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission, a second time domain resource occupied by the first UE, a third time domain resource for a gap, a fourth time domain resource shared with the UE (as discussed in claim 2) or a second UE, or a fifth time domain resource for automatic gain control (AGC) (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 15 Wang in view of Sun teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (as discussed in claim 1), the method comprising:
performing a channel access procedure for initiating a channel occupancy time (COT) (as discussed in claim 1); and
transmitting a sidelink control information (SCI) format in response to the channel access procedure being successful, wherein the SCI format comprises structure information of the COT (as discussed in claim 1).
For claim 16 Wang teaches the method, wherein the structure information of the COT indicates at least one of the following:
a first time domain resource reserved for a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) transmission, a second time domain resource occupied by the UE, a third time domain resource for a gap, a fourth time domain resource shared with a second UE (as discussed in claim 2), or a fifth time domain resource for automatic gain control (AGC) (as discussed in claim 2).
For claim 17 Wang teaches the method, wherein the SCI format is transmitted within the COT according to a period (as discussed in claim 3); and
wherein the period is configured by a serving base station or predefined (as discussed in claim 3); or
For claim 18 Wang teaches the method of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:
transmitting a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) on the second time domain resource (as discussed in claim 4); and
receiving a PSFCH on the first time domain resource carrying hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge (HARQ-ACK) feedback corresponding to the PSSCH (as discussed in claim 4).
For claim 20 Wang in view of Sun teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (as discussed in claim 1), the method comprising:
receiving a first sidelink control information (SCI) format, wherein the first SCI format comprises structure information of a channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a first UE (as discussed in claim 1); and
performing a channel access procedure for a sidelink transmission within the COT based on the structure information (as discussed in claim 1).
5. Claims 5, 7-12, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 2022/0417988 A1) in view of Sun et al. (US 2024/0064713 A1) further in view of Khoshnevisan et al. (US 2021/0037551 A1).
For claim 5 Wang in view of Sun does not explicitly teach the UE, wherein the SCI format comprises a COT structure indicator to indicate the structure information of the COT, and the COT structure indicator indicates a slot format combination from a list of slot format combinations or indicates a COT structure from a list of COT structures.
However, Khoshnevisan teaches the wireless device may receive COT table (list) configuration information… receive a remaining minimum system information (RMSI) message identifying one or more small sized COT tables (lists) for use in obtaining partial COT structure information… decode COT-SI bits to indicate one or more ordered entries of a first COT table and a second COT table (Khoshnevisan: paragraphs 69-72).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to use the teachings of Khoshnevisan in the combined COT-SI reservation of sidelink communication of Sun and Wang enable a wireless device to decode COT-SI bits wherein the COT-SI bits provide various features such as identifying an index value of COT-SI (Khoshnevisan: paragraphs 69-72).
For claim 7 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the UE of claim 5, wherein each slot format combination of the list of slot format combinations comprises slot format information for one or more consecutive slots with respect to a reference sub-carrier spacing (SCS) (Wang: paragraph 59 “the number of symbols in a slot may vary depending on the aspects, for example, based on the channel bandwidth, the subcarrier spacing (SCS), and/or the CP mode.”).
For claim 8 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the UE of claim 7, wherein the slot format information (SFI) for a slot indicates a corresponding symbol state for each symbol of the slot and the corresponding symbol state indicates at least one of the following:
occupied by the UE, reserved for a PSFCH transmission, used for a gap, shared with a second UE (Wang: paragraph 55 “PSFCH”), or used for automatic gain control (AGC) (Wang: paraph 88 “the COT-SI generated by the COT-initiating UE to reserve COTs for future use may be transmitted via a gap symbol and/or an automatic gain
control (AGC) symbol of the radio frame structure”).
For claim 9 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the UE of claim 5, wherein each COT structure of the list of COT structures comprises at least one of the following indicators with respect to a reference sub-carrier spacing (SCS) (Wang: paragraph 59 “SCS …a number of consecutive symbols…”, design options):
a first indicator indicating a number of consecutive slots occupied by the UE (Wang: paragraph 59 “SCS …a number of consecutive symbols…”, design options);
a second indicator indicating a number of symbols used as a gap within the last slot occupied by the UE (design options);
a third indicator indicating a number of consecutive slots shared with a second UE (design options);
a fourth indicator indicating a number of symbols shared with the second UE within the last slot shared with the second UE (design options);
a fifth indicator indicating a number of symbols used as a gap between the end of the symbols shared with the second UE and the beginning of a first PSFCH unit of at least one PSFCH unit (Sun: paragraph 92 “a minimum time gap (e.g., about 1 symbol) for PSFCH”, design options);
a sixth indicator indicating a number of PSFCH units of the at least one PSFCH unit after the last symbol shared with the second UE (Sun: paragraph 92 “a minimum time gap (e.g., about 1 symbol) for PSFCH”, design options); or
a seventh indicator indicating the number of symbols after the last PSFCH unit of the at least one PSFCH unit (Sun: paragraph 92 “a minimum time gap (e.g., about 1 symbol) for PSFCH”, design options).
For claim 10 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the UE of claim 5, wherein a number of slots within a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) corresponding to the channel access procedure is an integer multiple of number of slots within the indicated slot format combination or indicated COT structure (Sun: paragraph 170 “COT-SI”, paragraph 76 “SCI may include a COT-SI including COT sharing information (e.g., a duration of the COT for sharing) and the indication of whether the first sidelink transmission is from a UE 115 that initiated the COT”, paragraphs 98, and paragraph 121 “COT-SI includes an indicator indicating COT or MCOT duration” and Khoshnevisan: paragraph 83 “SFI indicates maximum COT size (MCOT)”).
For claim 11 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the UE, wherein the structure information of the COT is structure information of the whole COT(Sun: paragraph 48 “the SCI may include a COT-SI including COT sharing information”, paragraph 134 “UE may obtain information related to a duration of the shared portion from the COT-SI indicator”), and the SCI format indicates a position of a slot where the SCI format is transmitted with reference to a first slot of the COT (Khoshnevisan: paragraph 83 “rather than receiving a COT-SI, the wireless device may receive an explicit SFI for each slot of a COT”); or
wherein the structure information of the COT is structure information of a remaining duration of the COT (Sun: paragraph 48 “the SCI may include a COT-SI including COT sharing information”, paragraph 134 “UE may obtain information related to a duration of the shared portion from the COT-SI indicator”); or
For claim 12 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the or
the position is indicated by a remaining duration of the COT (Sun: paragraph 48 “the SCI may include a COT-SI including COT sharing information”, paragraph 134 “UE may obtain information related to a duration of the shared portion from the COT-SI indicator”).
For claim 19 Wang in view of Sun further in view of Khoshnevisan teaches the method, wherein the SCI format comprises a COT structure indicator to indicate the structure information of the COT, and the COT structure indicator indicates a slot format combination from a list of slot format combinations or indicates a COT structure from a list of COT structures (as discussed in claim 5).
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David M OVEISSI whose telephone number is (571)270-3127. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8Am-5PM.
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/MANSOUR OVEISSI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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