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 § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8, 12-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 1 and 12 recite “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field.” However, Applicant’s original Specification does not disclose that the second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field is separate from the common information field. Rather, Fig. 11 and paragraph [0159] of Applicant’s Specification disclose that the additional trigger dependent common info subfields ARE part of the common information field.
Dependent claims 2-6, 8, 13-17 and 19 are rejected because they depend from independent claims 1 and 12.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 and 12 recite “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field.” However, Applicant’s original Specification does not disclose that the second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field is separate from the common information field. Rather, Fig. 11 and paragraph [0159] of Applicant’s Specification disclose that the additional trigger dependent common info subfields ARE part of the common information field. Further, Applicant’s Specification does not disclose how to determine whether additional fields are separate from the common information field. A person of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, would not have understood the metes and bounds of the claim limitation “separate from the common information field,” because it would not have been understood how to determine whether the additional fields are separate from, or part of, the common information field, if, for example, the additional fields were located immediately after the fields present in a HE trigger frame common information field.
For the purposes of Examination, the Examiner interprets that additional EHT spatial information fields may be correctly interpreted as both/either included or excluded from the “common information,” because they may be accurately labelled as “common information”, or they may be accurately labeled as “EHT common information” which is different than the “HE common information.”
Dependent claims 2-6, 8, 13-17 and 19 are rejected because they depend from independent claims 1 and 12.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 8, 12-17 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 2018/0062805) in view of Verma et al. (US 2019/0116513).
Regarding claim 1, Huang discloses a terminal configured to operate in a wireless communication system (Huang, paragraph [0003], devices in wireless local area network), the terminal comprising:
a communication module; and a processor configured to control the communication module (Huang, paragraph [0023], WLAN circuitry, processors), wherein the processor is configured to,
receive a trigger frame from an access point (AP) (Huang, Fig. 9, trigger frame 920; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950), wherein:
the trigger frame includes a common information field comprising a first plurality of spatial reuse fields (Huang, Fig. 6, TF indication, SR, SR restriction fields; Fig. 9, trigger frame 920; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU; paragraph [0101], spatial reuse field 958 may be set to the same value SRV 954 as the spatial reuse fields 926-932 in the HE TB PPDUs), and
whether the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field (Huang, Fig. 6, SR, SR restriction fields; Fig. 9, trigger frame 920; paragraph [0073], SR field 627 and SR restriction field 628; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU; paragraph [0101], spatial reuse field 958 may be set to the same value SRV 954 as the spatial reuse fields 926-932 in the HE TB PPDUs; paragraph [0103], four SR subfields 926, 928, 930, 932) is identified based on a type information indicated by the trigger frame (Huang, Fig. 6, SR, SR restriction field; paragraph [0076], TF indication 626 field indicates whether a SR restriction is indicated), and
transmit a triggered based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) in response to the trigger frame (Huang, Fig. 9, HE TB PPDU 924; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU),
wherein the TB PPDU is generated based on the first plurality of spatial reuse fields or the second plurality of spatial reuse fields according to whether a type of the TB PPDU indicated based on the type information of the trigger frame is a High Efficiency (HE) type or a another type (Huang, Fig. 9, HE TB PPDU 924; paragraph [0056], HE stations are not legacy stations; paragraph [0069], HE stations use IEEE 802.11ax and a spatial reuse (SR) field; paragraph [0076], TF indication 626 field indicates whether a SR restriction is indicated; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU).
Huang does not explicitly indicate that the TF indication field is type information.
Verma discloses a terminal configured to operate in a wireless communication system (Verma, paragraph [0004], stations in a wireless local area network), the terminal comprising:
a communication module; and a processor configured to control the communication module (Verma, Fig. 7, transceiver and processor), wherein the processor is configured to,
receive a trigger frame from an access point (AP) (Verma, paragraph [0007], AP transmits EHT packet to STA; paragraph [0015], EHT trigger based PPDU format for the EHT packet; paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA; paragraph [0056], HE trigger based PPDU includes an EHT TB PPDU), wherein:
the trigger frame includes a common information field comprising a first plurality of spatial reuse fields (Verma, paragraph [0008], receive parameter for EHT packet includes a spatial stream setting; paragraph [0038], EHT employs a large number of spatial streams; paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times), and
whether the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field is identified based on a type information indicated by the trigger frame (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame);
transmit a triggered based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) in response to the trigger frame (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame),
wherein the TB PPDU is generated based on the first plurality of spatial reuse fields or the second plurality of spatial reuse fields according to whether a type of the TB PPDU indicated based on the type information of the trigger frame is a High Efficiency (HE) type or a Extremely High Throughput (EHT) type (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to indicate a type of transmission in the invention of Huang. The motivation to combine the references would have been to inform the receiving device about the type information being received and the proper format of the information in the response.
Regarding claim 2, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein when the type of the TB PPDU indicated based on the type information is the EHT type, the TB PPDU is generated using the second plurality of spatial reuse fields (Huang, Fig. 9, HE TB PPDU 924; paragraph [0076], TF indication 626 field indicates whether a SR restriction is indicated; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU) (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame).
Regarding claim 3, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein when the a type of the TB PPDU indicated based on the type information is HE type, the TB PPDU is generated using the first plurality of spatial reuse fields (Huang, Fig. 9, HE TB PPDU 924; paragraph [0076], TF indication 626 field indicates whether a SR restriction is indicated; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU) (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame).
Regarding claim 4, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein a location of a frequency band to which a resource unit to which the TB PPDU is transmitted is allocated varies according to whether the TB PPDU is generated based on the first plurality of spatial reuse fields or the second plurality of second spatial reuse fields (Huang, paragraph [0084], HE MU PPDU 720 may be transmitted on a same RU as UL PPDUs 724)(Verma, Fig. 3; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times, each 20 MHz segment may include an RU allocation table ; paragraph [0062], content channel mappings).
Regarding claim 5, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 4, wherein the resource unit through which the TB PPDU is transmitted is allocated within a primary 160 MHz when the TB PPDU is generated using the first plurality of spatial reuse fields (Huang, paragraph [0060], HE PPDU RUs used in 160 MHz formats; paragraph [0084], HE MU PPDU 720 may be transmitted on a same RU as UL PPDUs 724)(Verma, Fig. 3; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times, each 20 MHz segment may include an RU allocation table ; paragraph [0062], content channel mappings).
Regarding claim 6, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein the trigger frame further includes identification information used to indicate the type information (Verma, paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame).
Regarding claim 8, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein when the TB PPDU is generated using the second plurality of spatial reuse fields, the TB PPDU is transmitted through a bandwidth indicated based on i) a bandwidth field included in the common information field and ii) an additional bandwidth field included in the trigger frame (Huang, paragraph [0060], HE PPDU RUs used in 160 MHz formats; paragraph [0084], HE MU PPDU 720 may be transmitted on a same RU as UL PPDUs 724)(Verma, Fig. 3; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times, each 20 MHz segment may include an RU allocation table ; paragraph [0062], content channel mappings).
Claims 12-17 and 19 are rejected under substantially the same rationale as claims 1-6 and 8, respectively.
Claim(s) 7 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 2018/0062805) in view of Verma et al. (US 2019/0116513), and further in view of Park et al. (US 2021/0028897).
Regarding claim 7, Huang in view of Verma discloses the terminal of claim 1, wherein the trigger frame includes a bandwidth field, an additional bandwidth field, a resource allocation field, and a puncturing mode field (Verma, paragraph [0057], bandwidth field including 3 bits to indicate 8 values for the bandwidth field; paragraph [0060], RU allocation table),
wherein the resource allocation field is used to allocate a resource unit to which the TB PPDU is transmitted (Huang, paragraph [0060], HE PPDU RUs used in 160 MHz formats; paragraph [0084], HE MU PPDU 720 may be transmitted on a same RU as UL PPDUs 724)(Verma, Fig. 3; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times, each 20 MHz segment may include an RU allocation table ; paragraph [0062], content channel mappings).
Huang does not explicitly disclose a puncturing mode field.
Park discloses wherein the trigger frame includes a bandwidth field, an additional bandwidth field, a resource allocation field, and a puncturing mode field (Park, paragraph [0144], STA transmits response through RU indicated by the RU allocation field; paragraph [0216], BW field may indicate 20 MHz or 40 MHz and a 2 bit punctured channel field may be defined so that each element is used to indicate four punctured channels),
wherein the resource allocation field is used to allocate a resource unit to which the response frame is transmitted (Park, paragraph [0144], STA transmits response through RU indicated by the RU allocation field), and
wherein the puncturing mode field is used to indicate whether puncturing in a bandwidth indicated by the bandwidth field and/or the additional bandwidth field is performed and a location of the puncturing (Park, paragraph [0144], STA transmits response through RU indicated by the RU allocation field; paragraph [0216], BW field may indicate 20 MHz or 40 MHz and a 2 bit punctured channel field may be defined so that each element is used to indicate four punctured channels).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to indicate a type of puncturing in the invention of Huang. The motivation to combine the references would have been to inform the receiving device about whether puncturing would be used in the response.
Claims 18 is rejected under substantially the same rationale as claim 7.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed January 16, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts that the claims are patentable because the Huang reference allegedly does not disclose that “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field.” However, this is incorrect. Firstly, as discussed in the claim rejections, Verma discloses that “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field.” Applicant provides no argument that the cited disclosures of Verma, in the claim rejections above, are not “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field.” Verma discloses that the trigger frame includes additional spatial re-use fields based on the trigger frame being indicates as a EHT type trigger frame (Verma, paragraph [0053], EHT frames 200 transmitted by AP and received by a STA includes EHT-SIG-A1, EHT-SIG-A2, EHT-SIG-B; paragraph [0059], HE-SIG-B or EHT-SIG-B includes common information field, AP may configure reserved bits to indicate that this frame is an EHT frame, STA may determine a HE trigger based PPDU format to include an EHT TB PPDU based on the twenty-third bit of the HE-SIG-A1 field; paragraph [0059], HE MU PPDU may be reconfigured to accommodate a 320 MHz bandwidth for EHT frame, may include common information field that has double the length for EHT frame; paragraph [0060], SIG-B field contents may be duplicated to accommodate the larger bandwidth for EHT frame, may contain 2 content channels which may be duplicated 8 times; paragraph [0068], determine, based on the reserved bits, that the transmission includes an EHT frame).
Additionally, the Huang discloses that the trigger frame further includes a first plurality of spatial reuse fields and additional/second plurality of spatial reuse fields of the trigger frame (Huang, Fig. 6, SR, SR restriction fields; Fig. 9, trigger frame 920; paragraph [0073], SR field 627 and SR restriction field 628; paragraph [0098], HE MU PPDU 920 can include a trigger frame 950 which can include common info field 956, which can include a SR [spatial reuse] field 958 which can be used by responding STA for inclusion within the SR subfields of an HE TB PPDU; paragraph [0101], spatial reuse field 958 may be set to the same value SRV 954 as the spatial reuse fields 926-932 in the HE TB PPDUs; paragraph [0103], four SR subfields 926, 928, 930, 932) is identified based on a type information indicated by the trigger frame (Huang, Fig. 6, SR, SR restriction field; paragraph [0076], TF indication 626 field indicates whether a SR restriction is indicated). In Huang, the fields (paragraph [0101], spatial reuse field 958 may be set to the same value SRV 954 as the spatial reuse fields 926-932 in the HE TB PPDUs; paragraph [0103], four SR subfields 926, 928, 930, 932) may be interpreted as including a first subset of those fields and a second/additional subset of those fields, that are based on the frame type being indicated as HE.
Additionally, Applicant’s original Specification does not appear to disclose that “the trigger frame further includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame separate from the common information field,” and person of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, would not have known how to determine whether the “second plurality of spatial reuse fields in an additional information field of the trigger frame” are “separate from the common information field.” Further, the Examiner interprets that it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, at the time of the invention, that additional EHT spatial information fields may be correctly interpreted as both/either included or excluded from the “common information,” because they may be accurately labelled as “common information”, or they may be accurately labeled as “EHT common information” which is different than the “HE common information.”
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Some of the limitations described by Huang et al. (US 2022/0095347) are: a terminal in a wireless communication system (Huang, paragraph [0001], communication apparatus for wireless local area network), the terminal comprising:
a communication module; and a processor configured to control the communication module (Huang, paragraph [0107], transmitter and signal processor), wherein the processor is configured to,
receive a trigger frame from an access point (AP) (Huang, paragraph [0028], received EHT trigger frame at an STA; paragraph [0121], trigger frame),
wherein the trigger frame comprises a common information field comprising a first plurality of spatial reuse fields (Huang, paragraph [0100], EHT-SIG-B field includes a Common field followed by a User Specific field, which together are referred to as the EHT-Sig-B content channel; paragraph [0115], transmission may include at least one content field; paragraph [0121], trigger frame 500 includes a common info field 502; paragraph [0122], common info field 502 includes an UL Spatial Reuse field), and
wherein whether the trigger frame includes a second plurality of spatial reuse fields is identified based on a type information indicated by the trigger frame (Huang, Fig. 5D), and
transmit a response frame in response to the trigger frame (Huang, paragraph [0127], STA may transmit EHT TB PPDU to the AP based on the resource allocation in the trigger frame),
wherein the response frame is generated based on the first plurality of spatial reuse fields or the second plurality of spatial reuse fields based on the type information indicated by the trigger frame (Huang, paragraph [0122], common info field 502 includes an UL Spatial Reuse field; paragraph [0127], STA may transmit EHT TB PPDU to the AP based on the resource allocation in the trigger frame).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALAN LOUIS LINDENBAUM whose telephone number is (571)270-3858. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nishant Divecha can be reached on (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALAN L LINDENBAUM/Examiner, Art Unit 2466
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419