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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Viger et al. (GB 2607650-A, “Viger”)
Regarding claim 1, Viger discloses an apparatus for a non-access point (AP) station (STA) of a first multi-link device (MLD) (see Figure 1), the apparatus comprising memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to: encode for transmission, to a second MLD, a stream classification service (SCS) request frame (see Figure 4b, 430, page 19 lines 16-28, SCS request frame is an encoded frame with information sent by non-AP), the SCS comprising a quality of service (QoS) element (see page 19 lines 19-28, QoS element), the QoS element comprising a link identification (LinkID) subfield indicating a LinkID (see page 22 lines 22-35, link ID), wherein the SCS request frame comprises a SCS identification (ID)(SCSID) subfield (see page 24 lines 8-13, SCSID), the SCSID subfield indicating a SCSID to be mapped to the LinkID (see page 25 lines 5-15, SCSID to link mapping); and decode, from the second MLD, a SCS response frame to the SCS request frame (see page 39 lines 9-10, SCS response frame, implicitly after decoding request frame), the SCS request frame indicating whether the LinkID is mapped to the SCSID (see page 25 lines 12-15, 1 bit to indicate link ID is mapped SCSID). Note: It is understood non-AP encode with request frame and AP decode the frame by sending a response frame.
Regarding claim 2, Viger discloses wherein the second MLD further comprises: an AP of the second MLD or a non-AP of the second MLD (see Figure 1).
Regarding claims 3,15 and 18, Viger discloses wherein the SCSID subfield is a first SCSID subfield and the SCSID is a first SCSID, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode for transmission, to the second MLD, a SCS link mapping request, the SCS link mapping request comprising a second SCSID subfield and a LinkID information subfield, wherein the second SCSID subfield indicates a second SCSID, and wherein the LinkID information subfield indicates LinkIDs to be mapped to the SCSID (see page 24 last 2 lines, page 25 lines1-4, a negotiation process between non-AP MLD and AP-MLD the set of links on which non-AP MLD expects to be scheduled for transmission, SCSID-to link mapping element 600 indicates links on which frames belonging to each traffic stream identified by its SCSID can be exchanged, negotiation process can be request/response implicitly). Note: It is understood non-AP encode with request frame and AP decode the frame by sending a response frame.
Regarding claim 4, Viger discloses wherein the LinkID information subfield is a bitmap (see page 15 last para.) indicating which LinkIDs of the second MLD are to be mapped to the second SCSID (see page 24 last 2 lines, page 25 lines1-4, a negotiation process between non-AP MLD and AP-MLD the set of links on which non-AP MLD expects to be scheduled for transmission, SCSID-to link mapping element 600 indicates links on which frames belonging to each traffic stream identified by its SCSID can be exchanged).
Regarding claim 5, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode, from the second MLD, a frame, the frame comprising an indication of whether the LinkIDs are mapped to the SCSID (see page 25 lines 12-15, 1 bit to indicate link ID is mapped SCSID)
Regarding claims 6, 16 and 19, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode for transmission, to the second MLD, a SCS-to-link mapping request element, the SCS-to-link mapping request element (see page 25 lines1-4, a negotiation process between non-AP MLD and AP-MLD the set of links on which non-AP MLD expects to be scheduled for transmission) comprising a traffic identification (TID) subfield (see page 10 lines 30-31), a SCSID information subfield (see Figure 4a, 420), and a linkID information subfield (see Figure 5, 550), the TID subfield indicating a TID (see Figure 7b, 752, TID), the SCSID information subfield indicating at least one SCSID (see Figure 6b, SCSID), the linkID information subfield indicating at least one linkID of a link of the second MLD (see Figure 5, 550, link ID), wherein the SCS-to-link mapping request element indicates that the at least one SCSID is to be the only SCSID permitted to use the at least one linkID for frames comprising the TID (see page 25 lines 5-15, SCSID to link mapping).
Regarding claim 7, Viger discloses wherein the LinkID information subfield is a bitmap indicating which LinkIDs of the second MLD comprise the at least one LinkID (see page 15 last para.).
Regarding claim 8, Viger discloses wherein the SCSID information subfield comprises a number of SCSIDs subfield, the number of SCSIDs subfield indicating a number of SCSIDs included in the SCSID information subfield, and wherein the SCSID information subfield further comprises the number of SCSIDs SCSID subfields (see page 18, last para.; page 27, last para. and page 28 lines 1-18, SCSIDs for each traffic stream).
Regarding claim 9, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a response to the SCS-to-link mapping request element, the response indicating that the at least one SCSID is to be the only SCSID permitted to be used on the at least one linkID for the TID (see page 25, lines 12-15, SCID allowed to be transmitted; page 17 lines 14-20, TID to link mapping to dictate which link can be used traffic) .
Regarding claim 10, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further
configured to: encode for transmission, to the second MLD, a SCS-to-link mapping request element, the SCS-to-link mapping request element (see page 25 lines1-4, a negotiation process between non-AP MLD and AP-MLD the set of links on which non-AP MLD expects to be scheduled for transmission) comprising a traffic
identification (TID) subfield (see page 10 lines 30-31), a SCSID information subfield (see Figure 4a, 420), and a linkID information subfield (see Figure 5, 550), the TID subfield indicating a TID (see Figure 7b, 752, TID), the SCSID information subfield indicating at least one SCSID (see Figure 6b, SCSID), the linkID information subfield indicating at least one linkID of a link of the second MLD (see Figure 5, 550, link ID), wherein the SCS-to-link mapping request element indicates that the at least one SCSID is not to be permitted to be used for the at least one linkID for frames comprising the TID (see page 25 lines 5-15, SCSID to link mapping).
Regarding claims 11 and 20, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode for transmission over a link of the second MLD corresponding to the LinkID, a physical layer protocol data unit PPDU, the PPDU comprising a media access control (MAC) Service Data Unit (MSDU), the MSDU comprising an indication of a first user priority matching a second user priority, wherein the SCS request frame comprises the second user priority (see page 10 lines 25-33, MSDU with traffic prioritization).
Regarding claim 12, Viger discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further
configured to: decode a frame comprising a mode, the mode indicating that the non-AP of the MLD is to transmit traffic in accordance with a TID to LinkID mapping of the
second MLD (see page 24, lines 14-22, TID to link mapping).
Regarding claim 13, Viger discloses further comprising transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry, the transceiver circuitry coupled to two or more patch antennas for receiving signaling in accordance with a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique (see page 9 lines 19-24, antennas for multi-link communication).
Regarding claim 14, Viger discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an apparatus for a non-access point (AP) station (STA) of a first multi-link device (MLD) (see Figure 1), the instructions to configure the one or more processors to: encode for transmission, to a second MLD, a stream classification service (SCS) request frame (see Figure 4b, 430, page 19 lines 16-28, SCS request frame is an encoded frame with information sent by non-AP), the SCS comprising a quality of service (QoS) element (see page 19 lines 19-28, QoS element), the QoS element comprising a link identification (LinkID) subfield indicating a LinkID (see page 22 lines 22-35, link ID), wherein the SCS request frame comprises a SCS identification (ID)(SCSID) subfield (see page 24 lines 8-13, SCSID), the SCSID subfield indicating a SCSID to be mapped to the LinkID (see page 25 lines 5-15, SCSID to link mapping); and decode, from the second MLD, a SCS response frame to the SCS request frame (see page 39 lines 9-10, SCS response frame, implicitly after decoding request frame), the SCS request frame indicating whether the LinkID is mapped to the SCSID ((see page 25 lines 12-15, 1 bit to indicate link ID is mapped SCSID). Note: It is understood non-AP encode with request frame and AP decode the frame by sending a response frame.
Regarding claim 17, Viger discloses an apparatus for an access point (AP) of a first multi-link device (MLD), the apparatus comprising memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry (see Figure 1) configured to: decode, from a second MLD (see page 39 lines 9-10, SCS response frame, implicitly after decoding request frame), a stream classification service (SCS) request frame (see Figure 4b, 430, page 19 lines 16-28, SCS request frame is an encoded frame with information sent by non-AP), the SCS comprising a quality of service (QoS) element (see page 19 lines 19-28, QoS element), the QoS element comprising a link identification (LinkID) subfield indicating a LinkID (see page 22 lines 22-35, link ID), wherein the SCS request frame comprises a SCS identification (ID)(SCSID) subfield, the SCSID subfield indicating a SCSID to be mapped to the LinkID (see page 25 lines 12-15, 1 bit to indicate link ID is mapped SCSID); and encode, for transmission to the second MLD, a SCS response frame to the SCS request frame (see page 39 lines 9-10, SCS response frame, implicitly after decoding request frame), the SCS request frame indicating whether the LinkID is mapped to the SCSID (see page 25 lines 12-15, 1 bit to indicate link ID is mapped SCSID). Note: It is understood non-AP encode with request frame and AP decode the frame by sending a response frame.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD S ANWAR whose telephone number is (571)270-5641. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6-5 EST.
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MOHAMMAD S. ANWAR
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/MOHAMMAD S ANWAR/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463