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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 26, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-2 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Balakrishnan et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20240015059 A1 (hereinafter Balakrishnan).
Regarding Claim 1, Balakrishnan discloses an apparatus of an ultra-high reliable (UHR) station (STA) (e.g., FIG. 1, client station 126), the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry (e.g., FIG. 1, ¶ [0019] [0019] The client station 126-1 includes a host processor 128 coupled to a network interface 130 which includes a MAC processing unit 132 and a PHY processing unit 134. The PHY processing unit 134 includes a plurality of transceivers 138 and the transceivers), and memory (e.g., FIG. 10, ¶ [0055] The circuit 150 may be in the AP 102 or client device 126 and comprises an ER PPDU processing circuit 1002 (possibly including logic circuitry, hardware, multiple processors, multiple cores, multiple nodes, and/or implementing multi-threading, etc.) and memory 1004 such as system memory (e.g., one or more of cache, SRAM, DRAM, zero capacitor RAM, Twin Transistor RAM, eDRAM, EDO RAM, DDR RAM, EEPROM, NRAM, RRAM, SONOS, PRAM, etc.) or any one or more other possible realizations of non-transitory machine-readable media/medium), wherein the processing circuitry is configured to attempt to decode a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) (e.g., ¶ [0016] client device which is able to decode an extended range portion of the ER PPDU when the client device might not be able to decode a legacy portion of the ER PPDU. The ER PPDU includes the legacy portion and the extended range (ER) portion… At least some fields of the legacy portion may be defined by IEEE 802.11be or 802.11ax in an example so that the legacy devices compliant with IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac/ax/be have the capability to decode the legacy portion of new ER PPDU and perform corresponding clear channel assessment (CCA) for better coexistence with ultra high rate (UHR) ER devices), the PPDU received on one or more 20 MHz channels (e.g., ¶ [0034] A tone map for the ER-SIG field 226 and ER Data field 214 transmitted using SC-FDM may be arranged as a 20 MHz ER PPDU), the PPDU comprising legacy preamble fields followed by a universal signal field (U-SIG) (e.g., FIG. 2, ER PPDU 200, legacy portion 202 with legacy preamble 206, U-SIG 210), the U-SIG indicating whether the PPDU is an extended range (ER) PPDU or a non-ER PPDU (e.g., ¶ [0028] the U-SIG field 210 may indicate a “PHY version identifier” which indicates a PHY version. To signal the new ER format, a new value of “PHY version identifier” in the U-SIG field 210 can be used to indicate next generation PHY and a new “PPDU format” subfield can indicate the new ER format), wherein when the U-SIG indicates that the PPDU is an ER PPDU, the PPDU further comprises ER preamble fields following the U-SIG and an ER data field following the ER preamble fields (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0023] ER preamble 212, ER data 214); wherein when the UHR STA supports ER operations and is able to detect the legacy preamble fields, the processing circuitry is configured to: classify the PPDU as an ER PPDU based on the legacy preamble fields and the U-SIG (e.g., ¶ [0023] FIG. 2 is an example of the extended range (ER) physical-layer packet data unit (PPDU) 200 in accordance with an embodiment. The PPDU 200 may have a legacy portion 202 and an ER portion 204 which are transmitted by antenna as a waveform. The legacy portion 202 includes legacy fields which legacy 802.11 devices are able to decode for co-existence while the ER portion 204 may include one or more ER fields so that next generation devices such as WiFi 8 UHR devices are able to transmit and receive data in the ER portion 204 with increased range and SNR ratio. In an example, a bandwidth of the legacy portion 202 and the ER portion 204 is the same to provide co-existence with legacy devices), and switch to use of the ER preamble fields for decoding the ER data field (e.g., ¶ [0029] the ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212 includes a data payload defined by an ER-data binary sequence), and wherein when the UHR STA supports ER operations and is not able to detect the legacy preamble fields (e.g., ¶ [0027] ER preamble detection will not be affected by the status from the legacy preamble detection [interpreted that inability to detect legacy preamble as status is not a factor in ER preamble detection]), the processing circuitry is configured to: detect the ER preamble fields (e.g., ¶ [0027]), classify the PPDU as an ER PPDU based on the ER preamble fields e.g., ¶ [0016] client device [may] decode an extended range portion of the ER PPDU), and use the ER preamble fields for decoding the ER data field (e.g., ¶ [0029] the ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212 includes a data payload defined by an ER-data binary sequence).
Regarding Claim 2, Balakrishnan discloses all the limitations of the apparatus of claim 1.
Balakrishnan discloses wherein when the UHR STA does not support ER operations and is able to detect the legacy preamble fields (e.g., ¶ [0028] an unintended receiver which does not support a non-legacy standard can use indications of these fields to enter into a power save state in an example when the PPDU 200 is received and is not able to be processed, and set network allocation vector (NAV) values correspondingly to not transmit for at least a PPDU duration), the processing circuitry is configured to: classify the PPDU as an ER PPDU based on the legacy preamble fields and the U-SIG, and set a network allocation vector (NAV) based on one of a length in a legacy signal field (L-SIG) within the legacy preamble fields and a transmission opportunity (TXOP) duration indicated in the U-SIG (e.g., ¶ [0028] A PPDU length in octets indicated in the L-SIG field 220 is backward compatible with legacy devices to detect the PPDU 200 while the U-SIG field 310 provide both backward and forward compatibility. For example, the L-SIG LENGTH % 3==0, the U-SIG field 210 is modulated with binary phase shift keying (BPSK), and the U-SIG field 210 may indicate a “PHY version identifier” which indicates a PHY version… when the PPDU 200 is received and is not able to be processed… set network allocation vector (NAV) values correspondingly to not transmit for at least a PPDU duration).
Regarding Claim 4, Balakrishnan discloses all the limitations of the apparatus of claim 2.
Balakrishnan discloses wherein for an ER PPDU, the ER preamble fields comprise pre-ER modulated fields followed by ER modulated fields (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER portion 204 includes an ER preamble field 212 and an ER data field 214. The ER preamble field 212 further includes an ER-STF 222, ER-LTF 224, and ER-SIG field 226… The ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212 includes a data payload defined by an ER-data binary sequence), the pre-ER modulate fields comprising an ER short training field (ER-STF) followed by an ER long training field (ER-LTF) followed by an ER signal field (ER-SIG) (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER portion 204 includes an ER preamble field 212 and an ER data field 214. The ER preamble field 212 further includes an ER-STF 222, ER-LTF 224, and ER-SIG field 226), the ER modulated fields comprising the ER data field (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212), wherein for the UHR STA that supports ER operations and has classified the PPDU as an ER PPDU, the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode the ER-SIG to determine a bandwidth for the ER data field (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0028] The ER-SIG field 226 includes information for data decoding. The ER-SIG 226 may include various parameters including rate, LENGTH, bandwidth, SERVICE field, and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) etc. defined by an ER-SIG binary sequence); perform a channel estimation for the bandwidth using the ER-LTFs for each of the one or more 20 MHz channels of the bandwidth (e.g., ¶ [0032] ER-LTF 224 may be added to indicate information to demodulate ER data 214 content. The information may indicate a tone mapping and the LTF2 may be included in the ER-LTF 224 when a tone mapping of the subcarriers on which a binary sequence of the information are loaded and/or a bandwidth of the ER data field 214 is different from the SIG field 226. The tone mapping may be a process of selecting subcarriers in a set of subcarriers to transmit the binary sequence, where a subcarrier or tone is a defined frequency or frequencies in a channel bandwidth such as a 20 MHz channel having an amplitude and a phase).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 11 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Balakrishnan in view of Ryu et al, US 20240147531 A1 (hereinafter Ryu).
Regarding Claim 11, Balakrishnan discloses an apparatus of an ultra-high reliable (UHR) station (STA) (e.g., FIG. 1, client station 126), the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry (e.g., FIG. 1, ¶ [0019] [0019] The client station 126-1 includes a host processor 128 coupled to a network interface 130 which includes a MAC processing unit 132 and a PHY processing unit 134. The PHY processing unit 134 includes a plurality of transceivers 138 and the transceivers), and memory (e.g., FIG. 10, ¶ [0055] The circuit 150 may be in the AP 102 or client device 126 and comprises an ER PPDU processing circuit 1002 (possibly including logic circuitry, hardware, multiple processors, multiple cores, multiple nodes, and/or implementing multi-threading, etc.) and memory 1004 such as system memory (e.g., one or more of cache, SRAM, DRAM, zero capacitor RAM, Twin Transistor RAM, eDRAM, EDO RAM, DDR RAM, EEPROM, NRAM, RRAM, SONOS, PRAM, etc.) or any one or more other possible realizations of non-transitory machine-readable media/medium).
Balakrishnan discloses an encoded physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) (e.g., ¶ [0016] client device which is able to decode an extended range portion of the ER PPDU when the client device might not be able to decode a legacy portion of the ER PPDU. The ER PPDU includes the legacy portion and the extended range (ER) portion… At least some fields of the legacy portion may be defined by IEEE 802.11be or 802.11ax in an example so that the legacy devices compliant with IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac/ax/be have the capability to decode the legacy portion of new ER PPDU and perform corresponding clear channel assessment (CCA) for better coexistence with ultra high rate (UHR) ER devices)… the PPDU comprising legacy preamble fields followed by a universal signal field (U-SIG) (e.g., FIG. 2, ER PPDU 200, legacy portion 202 with legacy preamble 206, U-SIG 210)… the U-SIG encoded to indicate whether the PPDU is an ER PPDU or a non-ER PPDU (e.g., ¶ [0028] the U-SIG field 210 may indicate a “PHY version identifier” which indicates a PHY version. To signal the new ER format, a new value of “PHY version identifier” in the U-SIG field 210 can be used to indicate next generation PHY and a new “PPDU format” subfield can indicate the new ER format), wherein when the U-SIG indicates that the PPDU is an ER PPDU, the PPDU is further encoded to include ER preamble fields following the U-SIG and an ER data field following the ER preamble fields (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0023] ER preamble 212, ER data 214),
wherein the ER preamble fields comprise pre-ER modulated fields followed by ER modulated fields (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER portion 204 includes an ER preamble field 212 and an ER data field 214. The ER preamble field 212 further includes an ER-STF 222, ER-LTF 224, and ER-SIG field 226… The ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212 includes a data payload defined by an ER-data binary sequence), the pre-ER modulate fields comprising an ER short training field (ER-STF) followed by an ER long training field (ER-LTF) followed by an ER signal field (ER-SIG) (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER portion 204 includes an ER preamble field 212 and an ER data field 214. The ER preamble field 212 further includes an ER-STF 222, ER-LTF 224, and ER-SIG field 226), the ER modulated fields comprising the ER data field (e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0029] The ER data field 214 which follows the ER preamble field 212); and transmission/reception of the encoded PPDU on one or more 20 MHz channels (e.g., ¶ [0034] A tone map for the ER-SIG field 226 and ER Data field 214 transmitted using SC-FDM may be arranged as a 20 MHz ER PPDU).
Balakrishnan discloses a UHR STA decoding a received PPDU from an access point, the PPDU comprising the recited elements (e.g., ¶ [0016] ER PPDU transmitted by an AP device [to] a client device [that is] able to decode [the] ER PPDU), but does not expressly disclose an access point as a UHR STA or a UHR STA encoding and transmitting the recited PPDUs.
Ryu discloses an apparatus of an ultra-high reliable (UHR) station (STA) (e.g., ¶ [0064] there is provided a wireless transmitter device, method, and system for transmitting one or more frames in accordance with IEEE 802.11 protocol. The disclosed wireless transmitter device includes a transceiver to exchange one or more frames with one or more wireless devices, a processor, and a memory storing instructions)…configured to: encode a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) for transmission (e.g., ¶ [0021] Range extension (ER) PPDU formats are introduced from IEEE 802.11ax and carried over to IEEE 802.11be and beyond; e.g., FIG. 2, ¶ [0034] uplink (UL) frame transmissions between the dSTA 230 and AP 210 are performed by transmitting a first PPDU 212 from the dSTA 230 (e.g., non-AP STA) to the rSTA 220, and then transmitting a second PPDU 223 from the rSTA 220 to the tSTA 210 (e.g., AP). Conversely, downlink (DL) frame transmission between AP 210 and the dSTA 230 are performed by transmitting a first PPDU 212 from the tSTA 210 (e.g., AP) to the rSTA 220, and then transmitting a second PPDU 223 from the rSTA 220 to the dSTA 230 (e.g., non-AP STA) (e.g., ¶ [0015] transmitting station tSTA device… a destination station (dSTA) device… a relay station (rSTA) device; e.g., ¶ [0035] UHR operations).
While Ryu does not expressly describe the PPDU or ER supporting PPDU with the recited claim limitations, Examiner interprets that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that, in the system of Ryu, which supports ER PPDU and UHR, the PPDU may be encoded and sent with the elements of the PPDU disclosed in Balakrishnan. In other words, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the filing date that the Balakrishnan disclosures of the recited PPDU, ER PPDU elements may be combined with the system of Ryu, which discloses encoding and transmission of ER PPDU, to reason that the combination discloses or fairly suggests to encode a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) for transmission, the PPDU comprising legacy preamble fields followed by a universal signal field (U-SIG), wherein for an extended range (ER) transmission, with the processing circuitry of UHR STA of Ryu configured to encode the U-SIG to indicate whether the PPDU is an ER PPDU or a non-ER PPDU, wherein when the U-SIG indicates that the PPDU is an ER PPDU, wherein when the U-SIG indicates that the PPDU is an ER PPDU, the PPDU is further encoded to include ER preamble fields following the U-SIG and an ER data field following the ER preamble fields, wherein the ER preamble fields comprise pre-ER modulated fields followed by ER modulated fields, the pre-ER modulate fields comprising an ER short training field (ER-STF) followed by an ER long training field (ER-LTF) followed by an ER signal field (ER-SIG), the ER modulated fields comprising the ER data field; and configure the UHR STA to transmit the encoded PPDU on one or more 20 MHz channels.
The motivation to combine Balakrishnan in view of Ryu would have been to range extension frame forwarding in wireless communication systems (Ryu: e.g., ¶ [0002]).
Regarding Claim 19, the claim is directed to a method performed by a UHR STA apparatus, the method comprising elements and operations that are functionally similar to the UHR STA apparatus of claim 11. Therefore, the reasoning used in the examination of claim 11 shall be applied to claim 19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 5-10, 12-18 and 20 are 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.
Regarding Claim 3, dependent from claim 2, the prior art of record discloses ER PPDU, with the ER preamble fields comprising pre-ER modulated fields followed by ER modulated fields, the pre-ER modulate fields comprising an ER short training field (ER-STF) followed by an ER long training field (ER-LTF) followed by an ER signal field (ER-SIG), the ER modulated fields comprising the ER data field, as well as decoding the ER data field over the bandwidth using the channel estimation. However, the prior art of record fails to disclose individually or in combination or render obvious the limitations wherein the ER modulated fields further comprise a second ER short training field (ER-STF2) following the ER-SIG field, the ER-STF2 followed by a second ER long training field (ER-LTF2), and wherein for the UHR STA that supports ER operations and has classified the PPDU as an ER PPDU, the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode the ER-SIG to determine a bandwidth for the ER-STF2 and the ER LTF2, and the ER data field; perform a channel estimation for the bandwidth using the ER-STF2 and the ER LTF2 fields.
Claims 5-10, directly or indirectly dependent from claim 3, are also objected.
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from claim 11, the prior art of record fails to disclose individually or in combination or render obvious the limitation wherein the ER modulated fields further comprise a second ER short training field (ER-STF2) following the ER-SIG field, the ER-STF2 followed by a second ER long training field (ER-LTF2).
Claims 13-18, directly or indirectly dependent from claim 12, are also objected.
Regarding Claim 20, dependent from claim 19, the prior art of record discloses wherein for a wideband transmission of an ER PPDU over a wideband channel comprising more than one 20 MHz channel, the method comprises: duplicating the pre-ER modulated fields for transmission over each 20 MHz channel; and configuring the ER modulated fields and the ER data field for a wideband transmission over the wideband channel (Balakrishnan: e.g., ¶ [0035]), but the prior art of record fails to disclose individually or in combination or render obvious the limitation wherein the ER modulated fields further comprise a second ER short training field (ER-STF2) following the ER-SIG field, the ER-STF2 followed by a second ER long training field (ER-LTF2).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References considered relevant to this application are listed in the attached "Notice of References Cited” (PTO-892).
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/VLADISLAV Y AGUREYEV/Examiner, Art Unit 2471