Patent Application 18092597 - METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BEAM MANAGEMENT IN

Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BEAM MANAGEMENT IN SIDELINK COMMUNICATION
Application Information

Invention Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BEAM MANAGEMENT IN SIDELINK COMMUNICATION
Application Number: 18092597
Submission Date: 2025-05-16T00:00:00.000Z
Effective Filing Date: 2023-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
Filing Date: 2023-01-03T00:00:00.000Z
National Class: 370
National Sub-Class: 503000
Examiner Employee Number: 88479
Art Unit: 2472
Tech Center: 2400
Rejection Summary

102 Rejections: 0
103 Rejections: 6
Cited Patents

No patents were cited in this rejection.
Office Action Text


    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 .
This action is in response to the application filed on 01/03/2023.
Claims 1-20 have been examined and rejected.

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, 5, 8-10, 12, 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US20230232426A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Liu discloses an operation method of a first terminal (see para 163, FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a process flow that supports S-SSB transmissions in a shared spectrum; anchor UE 115-c is the first terminal), comprising:
transmitting a plurality of sidelink-synchronization signal blocks (S-SSBs) (see para 165, the UE 115-c may transmit a S-SSB burst using one or more beams in a S-SSB period); 
performing a monitoring operation on a plurality of response resources associated with the plurality of S-SSBs (see para 166, the UE 115-c may identify a configuration for a set of resources of a sidelink beam selection resource pool based on transmitting the S-SSB burst); 
receiving a first response signal from a second terminal in a first response resource among the plurality of response resources (Examiners Note: Using BRI consistent with the specification, the limitation “first response resource” has been interpreted to mean “preferred/optimal beam selection resources are transmitted over PSFCH”. Based on this interpretation, see paras 169-171, the UE 115-d may transmit a control message including an indication of the one or more preferred beams (e.g., for receiving sidelink data) to the UE 115-c, over a resource of a set of resources of a sidelink beam selection resource pool/i.e., representing the response resource, where the set of resources of the sidelink beam selection resource pool is associated with the S-SSB burst … the UE 115-c may transmit an acknowledgement for the preferred beams (e.g., over a PSFCH).); 
identifying a first S-SSB associated with the first response resource among the plurality of S-SSBs (see paras 168-170, the UE 115-d may select one or more preferred beams of the subset of beams based on receiving the subset of beams associated with the S-SSBs … the UE 115-d may transmit the control message over resources of a PSFCH, where the resources are selected based on the one or more preferred beams); and 
determining a first transmission beam through which the first S-SSB is transmitted among a plurality of transmission beams of the first terminal as an optimal transmission beam (see para 168, the UE 115-d may select one or more preferred beams of the subset of beams based on receiving the subset of beams associated with the S-SSBs).
Liu teaches that the receiving UE (UE 115-d) selects a preferred optimal beam based on the received subset of S-SSBs.
Liu does not specify a “identifying a first S-SSB”.
It would have been to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to specify identifying a first S-SSB, since Liu already discloses selecting a preferred optimal beam based on the received subset of S-SSBs and also based on the specific resource corresponding to that S-SSB.

Regarding Claim 2, Liu discloses the operation method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the base station, configuration information of an association relationship between the plurality of S-SSBs and the plurality of response resources (see para, 147, for each S-SSB beam, the number of PSFCH resources may be configured (e.g., by the wireless communications system or the base station).

Regarding Claim 3, Liu discloses the operation method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of response resources are configured to be distinguished in at least one of time domain and frequency domain (see FIG. 6).

Regarding Claims 5, 12, Liu discloses: the plurality of response resources are a plurality of physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) resources (see para 70, the other UE may use resources of the PSFCH for transmission of beam selection information indicating the preferred beams… the PSFCH may be divided into sets of resources associated with each beam of the S-SSB burst, and the beam selection information may be determined based on used resources of the sets of resources).

Regarding Claims 8, 15, Liu discloses: transmitting, to the second terminal, information indicating a frequency resource used for transmission of a response signal for notifying an S-SSB selected by the second terminal from among the plurality of PSFCH resources, wherein the first response signal is received through the frequency resource indicated by the first terminal within the first response resource (see para 168, the UE 115-d may select one or more preferred beams of the subset of beams based on receiving the subset of beams associated with the S-SSBs).

Regarding Claims 9, 16, Liu discloses: transmitting, to the second terminal, a cyclic shift value applied to a response signal for notifying an S-SSB selected by the second terminal, wherein the monitoring operation on the plurality of response resources is performed using the cyclic shift value (see para 147, for each S-SSB beam, the number of PSFCH resources may be configured (e.g., by the wireless communications system or the base station) based on an equation, where NCS PSFCH is the number of cyclic shift (CS) pairs, configured per resource pool).

Regarding Claim 10, Liu discloses an operation method of a second terminal (see FIG. 10. UE 115-d (e.g., a client UE or second terminal)), comprising:
receiving configuration information of an association relationship between a plurality of sidelink-synchronization signal blocks (S-SSBs) and a plurality of response resources (see para 167,  the UE 115-d may identify the S-SSB burst transmitted using one or more beams in the S-SSB period. In aspects, the UE 115-c may transmit multiple beams over the S-SSB burst); 
performing a measurement operation on the plurality of S-SSBs received from a first terminal (see para 167, the UE 115-d may receive and identify at least a subset of the multiple beams associated with the S-SSB burst); 
selecting a first S-SSB from among the plurality of S-SSBs based on a result of the measurement operation (see para 168,  At 1020, the UE 115-d may select one or more preferred beams of the subset of beams based on receiving the subset of beams associated with the S-SSBs); 
identifying a first response resource associated with the first S-SSB among the plurality of response resources based on the configuration information (Examiners Note: Using BRI consistent with the specification, the limitation “first response resource” has been interpreted to mean “preferred/optimal beam selection resources are transmitted over PSFCH”. Based on this interpretation, see paras 169-171, the UE 115-d may transmit a control message including an indication of the one or more preferred beams (e.g., for receiving sidelink data) to the UE 115-c, over a resource of a set of resources of a sidelink beam selection resource pool/i.e., representing s first response resource, where the set of resources of the sidelink beam selection resource pool is associated with the S-SSB burst … the UE 115-c may transmit an acknowledgement for the preferred beams (e.g., over a PSFCH)); and 
transmitting a first response signal to the first terminal in the first response resource (see para 168, the UE 115-d may select one or more preferred beams of the subset of beams based on receiving the subset of beams associated with the S-SSBs).
Liu teaches that the receiving UE (UE 115-d) selects a preferred optimal beam based on the received subset of S-SSBs.
Liu does not specify a “identifying a first S-SSB”.
It would have been to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to specify identifying a first S-SSB, since Liu already discloses selecting a preferred optimal beam based on the received subset of S-SSBs and also based on the specific resource corresponding to that S-SSB.

Claim(s) 6, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US 20230232426 A1) in view of Wang (US 20220030613 A1).
Regarding Claims 6, 13, Liu discloses that for each S-SSB beam, the number of PSFCH resources may be configured.
Liu does not disclose details regarding: when the first terminal does not transmit data to the second terminal, the plurality of PSFCH resources are used for transmission of a response signal for notifying an S-SSB selected by the second terminal instead of hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)-acknowledgement (ACK) information.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang discloses this limitation: see para 122, FIG. 7, The resource configuration includes the PSFCH on two consecutive symbols. As PSCCH transmissions may need to adhere to low latency and/or ultra reliability conditions commensurate with IoT and/or URLLC, the PSFCH may be configured to carry HARQ feedback for control information, e.g., in addition to (or, potentially, instead of) HARQ feedback for data on the PSSCH.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Liu, the selected PSFCH resources are used as a response signal instead of HARQ ACK as taught by Wang, for a solution to decreasing resource underutilization and in so doing, sidelink communication is improved (see Wang, para 81).

Claim(s) 7, 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Wang, in view of Hoang (US 20220303952 A1).
Regarding Claims 7, 14, Liu in view of Wang disclose: the plurality of PSFCH resources are used for transmission of a response signal for notifying an S-SSB selected by the second terminal instead of HARQ-ACK information see para 122, FIG. 7, The resource configuration includes the PSFCH on two consecutive symbols. As PSCCH transmissions may need to adhere to low latency and/or ultra reliability conditions commensurate with IoT and/or URLLC, the PSFCH may be configured to carry HARQ feedback for control information, e.g., in addition to (or, potentially, instead of) HARQ feedback for data on the PSSCH.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Liu, the selected PSFCH resources are used as a response signal instead of HARQ ACK as taught by Wang, for a solution to decreasing resource underutilization and in so doing, sidelink communication is improved (see Wang, para 81).
Liu in view of Wang do not disclose: transmitting, to the second terminal, sidelink control information (SCI) including an HARQ feedback enable/disable indicator, wherein when a value of the HARQ feedback enable/disable indicator indicates 'disable',
In the same field of endeavor, Hoang discloses this limitation: see paras 274-275, the Tx WTRU may indicate some information about the resource pool in the PSBCH/i.e., representing the S-SSB … the WTRU may indicate one or more of the following information in the resource pool: the PSFCH periodicity of the resource pool in PSBCH; whether HARQ is enabled/disabled; and/or, HARQ feedback option. A WTRU may use resource pool information. In an example situation, an Rx WTRU may use the resource pool information sent by the Tx WTRU to determine the PSFCH resource to transmit the sidelink HARQ feedback, and/or perform sensing and resource selection/i.e., representing the resource of the selected S-SSB in the PSBCH.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the combined system of Liu and Wang, so as to use PSFCH for S-SSB resources information on PSBCH based HARQ being enabled or disabled as taught by Hoang, to manage and share the available resources for wireless communication (see Hoang, para 2).

Claim(s) 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu (US 20200260214 A1) in view of Khoryaev (US 20220039080 A1).
Regarding Claim 17, Wu discloses an operation method of a first terminal (see FIG. 5), comprising:
identifying a first location of the first terminal (see para 58, The transmitting device/i.e., first terminal, may determine its current geographic location … the transmitting device may identify a preconfigured zone in which the transmitting device is currently located); 
obtaining zone information indicating a second zone in which a second terminal is located (see paras 60-61, The transmitting device may indicate its current location and a surrounding range in the message. These may be indicated as a zone ID based on the transmitting device's geographical location and a range of the surrounding zones… Once the transmitting device has determined the zone/area/range intended to reliably deliver the message and within which a receiver should send feedback, the transmitting device may generate the message); 
identify a second location of the second terminal based on the zone information (see para 58, The transmitting device may determine its current geographic location, and may use the current location to determine an area/zone/range that is intended to receive the message/i.e., zone ID of the second terminal; also see para 66, the receiving device/i.e., second terminal, may determine its current location); and 
Wu teaches determining a location and a zone of the transmitting and receiving UE and beamforming (para 35).
However, Wu does not disclose details regarding: selecting a first beam directed to the second terminal from among a plurality of beams of the first terminal in consideration of the first location and the second location.
In the same field of endeavor, Khoryaev discloses: see FIG. 6, para 119, V2X node 622 can broadcast its geo-location information (geographical coordinate, velocity vector—magnitude and direction, etc.) to be used by receivers for RX beam selection at node 602, for example, such as by sidelink communications. 
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Wu, to select a beam based on location information as taught by Khoryaev, to provide vehicle related information to multiple vehicles and/or other device entities such as V2X devices is needed for increased and ongoing safety and coordination in communications between different node entities or devices (see Khoryaev, para 6).

Regarding Claim 18, Wu discloses the operation method according to claim 17, but does not disclose: the first location is identified based on information of a first zone in which the first terminal is located or information obtained through a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).
In the same field of endeavor, Khoryaev discloses: see para 111, ranging can be performed based on a response or derivation of the geo-location data from a signal such as a sidelink communication signal. The position/geo-location information can be extracted based on a geolocation operation via components of the V/V2X including radar, lidar, GNSS camera, or related sensors based on the sidelink communication received from or transmitted to the target vehicle/node.
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Wu, to identify the terminal location using GNSS as taught by Khoryaev, to provide vehicle related information to multiple vehicles and/or other device entities such as V2X devices is needed for increased and ongoing safety and coordination in communications between different node entities or devices (see Khoryaev, para 6).

Regarding Claim 19, Wu discloses the operation method according to claim 17, wherein the second location is determined as a center location of the second zone in which the second terminal is located (see paras 57-58, FIG. 5, the zone/area intended to reliably receive the message may comprise a circular area centered on the location of the transmitting device, e.g., UE 402 or other transmitter engaged in PC5 communication, and extending to a radius indicated to the receiving devices.  … the zone may be centered on the transmitting device with a selected radius).

Claim(s) 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu in view of Khoryaev, in view of Kim (US20230180187A1).
Regarding Claim 20, Wu in view of Khoryaev disclose the operation method according to claim 17, but do not disclose details regarding: a beam management method in sidelink communication is classified into a channel measurement-based beam management method and a zone-based beam management method, beam management is performed based on a measurement result of S-SSBs in the channel measurement-based beam management method, beam management is performed based on information on zones in which the first terminal and the second terminal are located without the measurement result of S-SSBs, and information indicating a type of the beam management method is received from a base station.
In the same filed of endeavor, Kim discloses both beam management based on measurement result of S-SSBs, and a zone-based beam management method, it further discloses: see paras 190-191, FIGs. 16-17,  The plurality of zones are configured to have different zone ranges according to surrounding environments (e.g., cities, highways, etc.) and/or coverage of mmWave. The beam management signal has a high pathloss due to use of a high frequency such as mmWave and thus has a significantly narrow communication coverage. Accordingly, the plurality of zones needs to be configured independently of the zones defined in LTE V2X. In other words, since the beam acquisition ID is an identifier that may overlap or be shared with an area outside the coverage of the mmWave, the plurality of zones may be preconfigured based on the coverage of mmWave and/or the surrounding environment, independently of the zones defined in LTE V2X. That is, the preconfigured area may be divided into a plurality of zones in consideration of a range in which a collision of beam management signals does not occur even when the same beam acquisition ID set is shared; also see FIG. 11 illustrates UEs performing V2X or SL communication; and FIG. 13 illustrates a procedure in which UEs perform V2X or SL communication; para 138, NR resource allocation mode 1, the BS may schedule an SL resource to be used by the UE for SL transmission. For example, the BS may perform resource scheduling for UE 1 through PDCCH (more specifically, downlink control information (DCI)), and UE 1 may perform V2X or SL communication with UE 2 according to the resource scheduling. For example, UE 1 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) to UE 2 on a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and then transmit data which is based on the SCI to UE 2 on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH); at para 120, to improve the S-SSB reception performance of the receiving UE, the transmitting UE needs to optimize the transmit power according to the characteristics of respective signals constituting the S-SSB. For example, according to the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of each signal constituting the S-SSB, the transmitting UE may determine the value of maximum power reduction (MPR) for each signal. 
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the combined systems of Wu and Khoryaev, to include zone based beam management as taught by Kim, to enable the gNB to manage the beam acquisition ID for each zone to avoid collision of the beam acquisition IDs between neighboring Ues thereby, the issue caused by half duplex between UEs may be addressed (see Kim, para 183).

Claim(s) 4, 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US20230232426A1) in view of Kim (US20230180187A1).
Regarding Claims 4, 11, Liu discloses: a beam management method in sidelink communication is classified into a channel measurement-based beam management method 
Lui does not disclose: a zone-based beam management method, beam management is performed based on information on zones in which the first terminal and the second terminal are located without the measurement result of S-SSBs, and information indicating a type of the beam management method is received from the base station.
In the same filed of endeavor, Kim discloses both beam management based on measurement result of S-SSBs, and a zone-based beam management method, it further discloses: see paras 190-191, FIGs. 16-17,  The plurality of zones are configured to have different zone ranges according to surrounding environments (e.g., cities, highways, etc.) and/or coverage of mmWave. The beam management signal has a high pathloss due to use of a high frequency such as mmWave and thus has a significantly narrow communication coverage. Accordingly, the plurality of zones needs to be configured independently of the zones defined in LTE V2X. In other words, since the beam acquisition ID is an identifier that may overlap or be shared with an area outside the coverage of the mmWave, the plurality of zones may be preconfigured based on the coverage of mmWave and/or the surrounding environment, independently of the zones defined in LTE V2X. That is, the preconfigured area may be divided into a plurality of zones in consideration of a range in which a collision of beam management signals does not occur even when the same beam acquisition ID set is shared; also see FIG. 11 illustrates UEs performing V2X or SL communication; and FIG. 13 illustrates a procedure in which UEs perform V2X or SL communication; para 138, NR resource allocation mode 1, the BS may schedule an SL resource to be used by the UE for SL transmission. For example, the BS may perform resource scheduling for UE 1 through PDCCH (more specifically, downlink control information (DCI)), and UE 1 may perform V2X or SL communication with UE 2 according to the resource scheduling. For example, UE 1 may transmit sidelink control information (SCI) to UE 2 on a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and then transmit data which is based on the SCI to UE 2 on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH); at para 120, to improve the S-SSB reception performance of the receiving UE, the transmitting UE needs to optimize the transmit power according to the characteristics of respective signals constituting the S-SSB. For example, according to the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of each signal constituting the S-SSB, the transmitting UE may determine the value of maximum power reduction (MPR) for each signal. 
It would have been obvious, to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Liu, to additionally include zone based beam management as taught by Kim, to enable the gNB to manage the beam acquisition ID for each zone to avoid collision of the beam acquisition IDs between neighboring Ues thereby, the issue caused by half duplex between UEs may be addressed (see Kim, para 183).

Conclusion
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/DEEPA BELUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472