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
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) 1-3, 6, 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2022/0417949) in view of Alfarhan et al. (US 2023/0164773).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang teaches a method for transmitting or receiving data between a first terminal and a second terminal through a sidelink in a wireless communication system, the method performed by the second terminal comprising: receiving sidelink control information (SCI) including a channel state information (CSI) request field indicating a CSI request from the first terminal on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) (Paragraphs [0064]-[0065] describes UE A carries a CSI request trigger in SCI and schedules PSSCH transmission of a transport block );
receiving a CSI-RS from the first terminal on the PSSCH (Paragraph [0065] describes UE B which receives the CSI request trigger, measures CSI-RS transmitted by UE A to obtain or generate the CSI report);
measuring a channel state of the sidelink based on the received CSI-RS (Paragraphs [0046]-[0047] describes UEB measures CSI-RS transmitted by UE A to obtain or generate and UE A receives the CSI report, thereby determining the link state or link quality between UE A and UE B );
Zhang doesn’t teach checking whether there is data to be transmitted to the first terminal at a time point at which CSI reporting including the measured channel state is to be transmitted; and determining whether to transmit the CSI reporting based on a result of the identification.
However, in analogues art Alfarhan teaches checking whether there is data to be transmitted to the first terminal at a time point at which CSI reporting including the measured channel state is to be transmitted; and determining whether to transmit the CSI reporting based on a result of the identification(Paragraphs [0240]-[0243] describes whether the WTRU has more data available to send in its buffer and the WTRU itself determines whether to include a CSI report. “time since last data transmission” which is a companion condition to the buffer based check and reinforces that reference treats data transmission activity or availability as direct gating input to the CSI reporting decision).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang measuring channel quality and send back a CSI report into the combination of Alfarhan checking whether there is data to be transmitted to maintain reliability (Alfarhan, Paragraphs [0264]-[0278]).
Regarding claim 2 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan, Alfarhan teaches further comprising transmitting, to the first terminal, a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) including a MAC control element (CE) including the CSI reporting and a MAC service data unit (SDU) including data to be transmitted to the first terminal, when there is data to be transmitted to the first terminal (Paragraphs [0238]-[0239]; [0241] describes that the CSI report is specifically carried in a MAC-CE and separates it as its own control element and MAC PDU structure containing both a MAC-CE and MAC SDU).
Regarding claim 3 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan, Alfarhan teaches wherein, when there is no data to be transmitted to the first terminal, the MAC PDU including the MAC CE including the CSI reporting is transmitted to the first terminal, but the MAC PDU does not include the MAC SDU including the data (Paragraphs [0239]-[0241] describes no data to be transmitted don’t include SDU).
Regarding claim 6 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan, Alfarhan teaches wherein, when there is no data to be transmitted to the first terminal, the CSI reporting is not transmitted to the first terminal (Paragraphs [0241]-[0242] describes a WTRU may determine to include CSI report if its buffer content size is above a threshold and/or based on having data buffered from LCH (s) applicable for small data transmission ).
Regarding claim 12, Zhang in view of Alfarhan, Alfarhan teaches further comprising: receiving a retransmission request for the CSI reporting from the first terminal; and performing retransmission related to the CSI reporting to the first terminal (Paragraphs [0116]; [0132]; [0153]-[0154]; [0206]-[0207] describes performing retransmission).
Claim 14 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1 respectively.
Claim(s) 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Alfarhan in further view of Wu et al. (US 2023/0037493).
Regarding claim 7, Zhang in view of Alfarhan don’t further comprising receiving higher layer signaling that triggers an inter-UE coordination operation from a base station, wherein the higher layer signaling includes control information related to determination of a preferred or non-preferred resource set
In analogous art Wu teaches further comprising receiving higher layer signaling that triggers an inter-UE coordination operation from a base station, wherein the higher layer signaling includes control information related to determination of a preferred or non-preferred resource set (Paragraphs [0069]-[0070]; [0099] describes RRC configuration by base station and triggers an inter-UE coordination operation. Inter-UE coordination information expressly defined as preferred or non-preferred resource indications, transmittable via RRC).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang measuring channel quality and send back a CSI report and Alfarhan checking whether there is data to be transmitted into the combination of Wu’s selection rules so that only the most relevant UE receives the warning to reduce sidelink interference (Wu, Paragraphs [0150]-[0154]).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang in view of Alfarhan and Wu, Wu teaches further comprising: performing resource sensing based on the higher layer signaling; determining a sidelink resource set including at least one of a preferred resource set or a non-preferred resource set based on a result of the resource sensing; transmitting information related to the determined sidelink resource set to the first terminal; and receiving the data on the PSSCH through a sidelink resource from the first terminal (Paragraphs [0070]-[0074]; [0094]; [0159] describes channel sensing within RRC configured resource pool, preferred or non-preferred resource indication derived from sensing or self-allocation knowledge. SCI-2 transmission of preferred resource inter UE coordination information. PSSCH carries sidelink data traffic or transport block within reserved sidelink resources ).
Regarding claim 9, Zhang in view of Alfarhan and Wu, Wu teaches wherein the sidelink resource is a preferred resource transmitted by multiple terminals or a preferred resource transmitted by a small number of terminals (Paragraphs [0094]; [0112]-[0113] describes resource being transmitted by multiple terminals).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang in view of Alfarhan and Wu, Wu teaches wherein the data received on the PSSCH through the sidelink resource is groupcast data transmitted to a terminal group or broadcast data transmitted to a plurality of terminals (Paragraphs [0055]; [0033]; [0074]; [0104] describes groupcast as delivery to multiple intended recipients/group, SCI-2 destination ID mapped from group ID, groupcast PSFCH feedback modes; groupcast transmission to group of sidelink UEs).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang in view of Alfarhan and Wu, Wu teaches wherein the sidelink resource is a preferred resource transmitted by multiple terminals or a non-preferred resource transmitted by a small number of terminals (Paragraphs [0093]-[0094] describes the sidelink resource is a preferred resource transmitted by multiple terminals).
Claim(s) 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Alfarhan in further view of Zhang et al. (US 2022/0337378).
Regarding claim 4 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan don’t teach further comprising transmitting, to the first terminal, a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) including a MAC control element (CE) including the CSI reporting and a MAC service data unit (SDU) padded to a certain size, when there is no data to be transmitted to the first terminal.
However, in analogous art Zhang teaches further comprising transmitting, to the first terminal, a MAC protocol data unit (PDU) including a MAC control element (CE) including the CSI reporting and a MAC service data unit (SDU) padded to a certain size, when there is no data to be transmitted to the first terminal (Paragraphs [0003]; [0058]; [0063]-[0064]; [0069] describes when the MAC PDU does not include a MAC SDU (there is no data to be transmitted), the MAC PDU may include “MAC header, MAC CE, and/or a padding bit” )
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang measuring channel quality and send back a CSI report and Alfarhan checking whether there is data to be transmitted into the combination of Zhang’s priority logic to resolve resource conflicts between sidelink and uplink transmissions( Zhang, Paragraphs [0015]-[0031]).
Regarding claim 5 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan, Alfarhan teaches wherein the certain size is a size of the PSSCH (Paragraphs [0066]; [0069] describes no data MAC PDU (MAC PDU) (MAC CE + padding bit) is the entity actually carried on the PSSCH meaning the padding bit necessarily fills the MAC PDU/TB out to whatever size the PSSCH transmission resource requires).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Alfarhan in further view of Li et al. (US 11902940 B2).
Regarding claim 13 , Zhang in view of Alfarhan don’t teach wherein the retransmission related to the CSI reporting is configured to: transmit a MAC PDU including a MAC CE and a MAC SDU including the CSI reporting; transmit the MAC PDU including the MAC CE including the CSI reporting but not including the MAC SDU; or transmit the MAC PDU including the MAC SDU but not including the MAC CE including the CSI reporting.
However, in analogous art Li teaches wherein the retransmission related to the CSI reporting is configured to: transmit a MAC PDU including a MAC CE and a MAC SDU including the CSI reporting; transmit the MAC PDU including the MAC CE including the CSI reporting but not including the MAC SDU; or transmit the MAC PDU including the MAC SDU but not including the MAC CE including the CSI reporting (Col. 19-20 fig. 13 , Col.21-22 describes data is only being sent from Tx UE to Rx UE, and there is no data pending for the RX UE to send to the Tx UE. When the RX UE has no data to transmit, there are three possible options for CSI)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Zhang measuring channel quality and send back a CSI report and Alfarhan checking whether there is data to be transmitted into the combination of Li’s report measurement results or other higher-layer signaling even when it has no sidelink data to send to make sure important feedback can still get a transmission opportunity even when the device has no ready sidelink resource (Li, Paragraphs [0071]-[0074]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEHERET WOLDEGEBREAL KIDANE whose telephone number is (571)270-3642. The examiner can normally be reached M-F8:30-5.
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/M.W.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/KAN YUEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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