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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/18/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the office action.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
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Claims 1-4, 6-13, 15-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of US patent 12355592. Please see the direct claim comparison below.
Instant application, claim 1
US patent 12355592, claim 1
A device, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:
transmit a ranging trigger frame to an initiator station device (ISTA) in a trigger-based (TB) ranging exchange, wherein the ranging trigger frame is a trigger frame for sounding, wherein the ranging trigger frame allocates uplink resources to the ISTA, and wherein a supported mode is a 2x high efficiency-long training field (2x HE-LTF) with a 1.6 microseconds guard interval (GI);
receive a first null data packet (NDP) from the ISTA, wherein the first NDP is associated with the 2x HE-LTF with a 1.6 microseconds GI;
generate a second null data packet (NDP) in response to the first NDP, the second NDP formatted as a HE trigger-based PPDU;
transmit the second NDP to the ISTA after a short interframe space (SIFS);
receive measurement feedback from the ISTA, wherein the measurement feedback comprises a time of arrival of the second NDP and a time of departure of the first NDP.
A device, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:
transmit a ranging trigger frame to a group of initiating station devices (ISTAs) in a trigger based (TB) ranging exchange, wherein the ranging trigger frame is a trigger frame of subvariant sounding, wherein the ranging trigger frame allocates uplink resources to one or more ISTAs, and wherein a supported mode is a 2x high efficiency-long training field (2x HE-LTF) with a 1.6 us Guard Interval (GI);
receive one or more initiator-to-responder null data packets (NDPs) (I2R NDPs), wherein the one or more 12R NDPs are sent by the one or more ISTAs participating in the exchange and each 12R NDP is associated with the 2x HE-LTF mode and the 1.6 us GI;
transmit a ranging NDP announcement (NDPA) frame after a short interframe space (SIFS) time, wherein the ranging NDPA frame is used by the one or more ISTAs after receiving a last HE TB ranging NDP from the one or more ISTAs;
transmit one or more responder-to-initiator NDPs (R2I NDPs), wherein the one or more R2I NDPs are used by the one or more ISTAs participating in the exchange and each R2I NDPs is associated with the 2x HE-LTF mode and the 1.6 us GI;
receive a measurement feedback from a first ISTA, wherein the measurement feedback includes a time of arrival of an R2I NDP of the one or more R2I NDPs and a time of departure of an I2R NDP of the one or more I2R NDPs, wherein the R2I NDP and the I2R NDP are used to measure a range to the first ISTA
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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 8-13, 15, 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aster (US 20180205441) in view of Chun (US 20190165883) further in view of Aldana (US 20170250831) further in view of Lee (US 20160330000).
Regarding claim 1, Aster discloses a device, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to:
transmit a ranging trigger frame to an initiator station device (ISTA) in a trigger-based (TB) ranging exchange, wherein the ranging trigger frame is a trigger frame for sounding (figs. 4 and 11, [0040][0053][0070-73]; step 1102, transmit a trigger frame to one or more stations to solicit sounding feedback, comprising a request for feedback from each station of the set of stations), wherein the ranging trigger frame allocates uplink resources to the ISTA ([0040], may transmit a control frame (e.g., a trigger frame) to STAs, to indicate a set of resources (e.g., allocations) assigned to the STAs for uplink transmissions),
receive a first null data packet (NDP) from the ISTA ([0041][0053][0073-75], figs. 4, 11, receive a short feedback in a response to the trigger frame (or trigger-based) from at least one station; the NDP feedback is transmitted in LTF, that is associated with the HE-LTF).
Aster does not explicitly disclose wherein a supported mode is a 2x high efficiency-long training field (2x HE-LTF) with a 1.6 microseconds guard interval (GI);
wherein the first NDP is associated with the 2x HE-LTF with a 1.6 microseconds GI;
generate a second null data packet (NDP) in response to the first NDP, the second NDP formatted as a HE trigger-based PPDU; transmit the second NDP to the ISTA after a short interframe space (SIFS),
receive measurement feedback from the ISTA.
Chun discloses wherein a supported mode is a 2x high efficiency-long training field (2x HE-LTF) with a 1.6 microseconds guard interval (GI), wherein the first NDP is associated with the 2x HE-LTF with a 1.6 microseconds GI (Chun, fig. 17, [0135]-[0137], the NDP frame structure shown in FIG. 17 which data field is omitted. In the structure of the NDP frame, it is assumed that 2x HE-LTF is used as a necessary mode for NDP; it is assumed that the NDP PPDU according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 17 uses 1.6 us as a GI value);
generate a second null data packet (NDP) in response to the first NDP, the second NDP formatted as a HE trigger-based PPDU; transmit the second NDP to the ISTA after a short interframe space (SIFS) (Chun, fig. 13, [0021][0099][0119], generating the NDP frame and delivering the generated NDP frame; the NDP frame is used based on the triggered PPDU format. Note the NDP is transmitted after a short delay as illustrated in fig. 13),
receive measurement feedback from the ISTA (Chun, fig. 12, [0097], a STA that has received the NDP frame may measure a downlink channel on the basis of information of the NDP frame and transmit the feedback frame based on the measured downlink channel).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of AP-device communication as given by Aster with the teachings of efficient NDP operation given by Chun. The motivation for doing so would have been to be compliance with the standard and to minimize signaling overhead (Chun, [0023]).
The trigger frame taught by Aster may include ranging trigger frame. Aster and Chun do not explicitly disclose wherein the measurement feedback comprises a time of arrival of the second NDP and a time of departure of the first NDP.
Aldana discloses the trigger frame include ranging trigger frame for channel sounding (Aldana, fig. 9c, [0151], NDP frame is to be used for ranging),
receive measurement feedback from the ISTA, wherein the measurement feedback comprises a time of arrival of the second NDP and a time of departure of the first NDP (Aldana, fig. 9c, [0151-152], FTM frame 990, which may include time T2 978, time T3 982, AoA, and AoD; initiator 975 may respond to NDP frame 988 with FTM frame 994, which may include time T1 974, time T4 986, AoA, and AoD of the NDP frames).
Aldana also discloses generate a second null data packet (NDP) in response to the first NDP, the second NDP formatted as a HE trigger-based PPDU; transmit the second NDP to the ISTA after a short interframe space (SIFS) (Aldana, fig. 9c, may be followed by transmission of NDP frame 988 at time T3 982 after a time interval given by SIFS, the NDP 988 must be generated before transmission).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of AP-device communication as given by Aster and Chun with the teachings of exchanging information on the time of arrival of a frame and the time of departure of another frame given by Aldana. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently measure the distance/range of the devices.
Chun discloses that 2x HE-LTF with a guard interval of 1.6 us is used as a necessary mode and 4x HE-LTF is selectively used (which can be interpreted, in certain cases, only 2x HE-LTF with a GI of 1.6 us is supported, that is, when the 4x HE-LTF mode is not available to be selected), to further support this feature, Lee discloses wherein the first NDP only supports the HE-LTF mode of 2x HE-LTF (Lee, [0191], in an embodiment, the HE-LTF 408 includes a 2X HE-LTF 408-2X according to the 2×LTF design. The 2X HE-LTF 408-2X includes an OFDM symbol 422 and a Guard Interval (GI) 424. That is, in this embodiment or implementation, only 2x HE-LTF mode is supported. Note, once the GI is set at 1.6 us in this embodiment, the NDP only supports 2x HE-LTF with a GI of 1.6 us).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of AP-device communication as given by Aster and Chun with the teachings of supporting 2x He-LTF mode given by Lee. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently improve system performance (Lee, [0013]).
Claims 6, 10, 15 and 17 are rejected same as claim 1 noting that Chun and Aldana disclose a computer readable medium and the communication with multiple nodes (Aldana, fig. 2).
Regarding claim 2, Aster, Chun and Aldana disclose the device of claim 1, wherein a null data packet announcement (NDPA) is followed by one or more downlink NDPs to one or more initiator devices (Chun, [0095], fig. 13, AP that has transmitted the NDP-A frame transmits the NDP frame to one or more STAs on the basis of the NDP-A frame information, STA transmits NDP to AP, Aldana, fig. 9c).
Claims 11 and 18 are rejected same as claim 2.
Regarding claim 3, Aster, Chun and Aldana disclose the device of claim 2, the one or more downlink NDPs are followed by a measurement report frame sent from the one or more initiator devices (Chun, fig. 11-12, Aldana, fig. 9c).
Claims 12 and 19 are rejected same as claim 3.
Regarding claim 4, Aster, Chun and Aldana disclose the device of claim 2, wherein the NDPA is sent after a passage of a short inter-frame space (SIFS) from receiving a last NDP from the one or more initiator devices (Chun, figs. 9 and 13, the combination of figs 9 and 13 indicates that a second NDPA is transmitted after the SIFS after receiving a last NDP).
Claim 20 is rejected same as claim 4.
Regarding claim 8, Aster, Chun discloses the device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals (Chun, figs 1-3).
Regarding claim 9, Aster, Chun and Aldana discloses the device of claim 8, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver to cause to send the trigger frame (Chun, fig. 13, transmit trigger frame, Aldana, fig. 9).
Claims 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aster, Chun, Lee and Aldana further in view of Kim (US 20180220357).
Regarding claim 7, Aster, Chun and Aldana disclose the device of claim 1, wherein the first packet extension field is 4 microseconds (Chun, fig. 17), wherein the HE TB NDP further comprises a first sounding HE short training field (HE-STF) (Chun, figs. 14-16),
Aster, Chun and Aldana do not explicitly disclose the first sounding HE-STF included in the HE TB NDP has a duration of 8 microseconds for sounding.
Kim discloses the first sounding HE-STF included in the HE TB NDP has a duration of 8 microseconds for sounding (Kim, Table 4, HE-STF 8 us).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of AP-device communication as given by Aster, Chun and Aldana with the teachings given by Kim. The motivation for doing so would have been to a method of a channel access based on EIFS operation in a wireless LAN system supporting multi-user transmission and apparatus (Kim, [0002]).
Claim 16 is rejected similarly as claim 7.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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