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 .
Response to Amendment
This Action is in response to Applicant’s Amendment filed on August 6, 2025. Claims 1-24 and 30 are still pending in the present application. This Action is made NON-FINAL.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-10, 18-24 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2021/0144787) in view of Gan et al (US Pat. Pub. No. 2023/0145827).
Regarding claim 1, Kwon et al discloses an apparatus for wireless communications, comprising: a memory comprising instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions and cause the apparatus to: generate an identifier corresponding to a first non-access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (see at least paragraph 57 discloses AID’s allocated to non-AP multi-link devices); output, for transmission to the first non-AP MLD, the first traffic element and an indication of the identifier (see at least paragraph 57); and output, for transmission to the first non-AP MLD, data stored in a first bufferable unit (BU) (see at least paragraph 57 discloses AIDs corresponding to non-AP multi-link device; the AP multi-link device has a buffered data to be delivered; further on paragraph 4).
Kwon et al fails to explicitly disclose a first traffic element comprising an indication of a first offset value. However, in the same field of endeavor, Gan et al discloses a first traffic element comprising an indication of a first offset value (see at least paragraph 133 each of DTIM has a traffic element; bitmap field is part of bits of a traffic indication field; also see fig. 4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Gan et al into the system of Kwon et al, for purpose of element identifier to use for identifying the element; bitmap field corresponds to an association identifier, which indicates whether a station corresponding to the AID has a unicast traffic.
Regarding claim 2, Gan et al discloses the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: output for transmission a second traffic element associating the identifier with an indication of the data stored in the first BU, wherein the second traffic element is output for transmission via a beacon frame, and wherein the first traffic element is output for transmission via a first frame subsequent to the beacon frame (see at least paragraph 36 and 128 discloses element identifier). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 3, Kwon et al discloses the first traffic element comprises an indication of group addressed BUs for another link (see at least paragraph 57 discloses TIM that includes second section containing information regarding the group addressed buffered data).
Regarding claim 4, Kwon et al discloses the first frame is output for transmission to a group of non-AP MLDs including the first non-AP MLD (see at least paragraph 57).
Regarding claim 5, Kwon et al discloses the first traffic element is configured to identify a plurality of links, and wherein each of the plurality of links is mapped to at least one of the non-AP MLDs in the group of non-AP MLDs (see at least paragraph 57).
Regarding claim 6, Kwon et al discloses the beacon frame comprises an indication that the first traffic element is output for transmission in the first frame subsequent to the beacon frame (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 7, Kwon et al discloses the first traffic element is output for transmission via a first resource unit (RU) of a multi-user (MU) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) (see at least paragraph 72).
Regarding claim 8, Kwon et al discloses the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: output, for transmission in a header of the MU PPDU, an indication that the first RU corresponds to the first non-AP MLD (see at least paragraph 72).
Regarding claim 9, Kwon et al discloses the MU PPDU comprises a plurality of RUs including the first RU, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: output for transmission a plurality of traffic elements including the first traffic element, wherein each of the plurality of traffic elements is output for transmission in an RU separate from other of the plurality of RUs, and wherein each of the plurality of traffic elements comprises a single offset value configured to identify a link based on a mapping between the single offset value and another identifier corresponding to one of a plurality of non-AP MLDs (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 10, Gan et al discloses the one or more processors are further configured to cause the apparatus to: output for transmission a plurality of traffic elements including the first traffic element, wherein each of the plurality of traffic elements comprises a unique offset value configured to identify a link based on a mapping between the unique offset value and one or more second identifiers, and wherein each of the plurality of traffic elements are output for transmission via: one or more frames subsequent to a beacon frame associating the identifier with an indication of the data stored in the first BU and the one or more second identifiers with an indication of data stored in a corresponding BU, or the beacon frame (see at least paragraph 133 and fig. 4). Same motivation as claim 1.
Regarding claim 18, Kwon et al discloses the first traffic element is a multi-link traffic element (MLTE) (see at least paragraph 84).
Regarding claim 19, Kwon et al discloses the first traffic element further comprises a first bitmap of one or more bitmaps, and wherein the first bitmap is configured to identify a link carrying the data stored in the BU (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 20, Kwon et al discloses the identifier is an association identifier (AID) (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 21, Kwon et al discloses a link carrying the data stored in the BU is signaled via a bitmap of the first traffic element (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 22, Kwon et al discloses wherein, at least one of: a link carrying the data stored in the BU is determined based on one or more criteria, the one or more criteria include load balancing traffic parameters, or the link is configured for uplink communications and downlink communications (see at least paragraph 79).
Regarding claim 23, Kwon et al discloses a transceiver configured to: transmit, to the first non-AP MLD, the indication of the identifier and the first traffic element; and transmit, to the first non-AP MLD, the data stored in the first BU, wherein the apparatus is configured as an access point (AP) (see at least paragraph 57).
Regarding claim 24, Kwon et al discloses the indication of the first offset value is configured to identify a first link based on a mapping between the first offset value and the identifier, and wherein the data stored in the first BU is output, for transmission to the first non-AP MLD, via the first link (see at least paragraph 56).
Regarding claim 30, Kwon et al discloses a method for wireless communications by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), comprising: generating an identifier corresponding to a first non-AP MLD (see at least paragraph 57); outputting, for transmission to the first non-AP MLD, the first traffic element and an indication of the identifier (see at least paragraph 57); and outputting, for transmission to the first non-AP MLD, data stored in a first bufferable unit (BU) (see at least paragraph 57).
Kwon et al fails to explicitly disclose a first traffic element comprising an indication of a first offset value. However, in the same field of endeavor, Gan et al discloses a first traffic element comprising an indication of a first offset value (see at least paragraph 133 each of DTIM has a traffic element; bitmap field is part of bits of a traffic indication field; also see fig. 4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify to incorporate above mention feature as taught by Gan et al into the system of Kwon et al, for purpose of element identifier to use for identifying the element; bitmap field corresponds to an association identifier, which indicates whether a station corresponding to the AID has a unicast traffic.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-17 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, filed on August 6, 2025, with respect to claims 1 and 30 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Conclusion
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/LITON MIAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642