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
Applicant’s submission filed 12/11/2025 has been entered. Claims 1 and 11 are amended. Claims 2 and 12 are cancelled. Claims 1, 3-11, and 13-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 and 11 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 3-4, 6-11, 13-14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asterjadhi et al. (US 2016/0219522), Asterjadhi hereinafter, in view of Fang et al. (US 2023/0051818), Fang hereinafter.
Re. Claim 1. Asterjadhi teaches access point (AP) device (Asterjadhi, 0187: FIG. 17 shows an example functional block diagram of a wireless device 1702 that may perform TWT scheduling within the wireless communication system 100 of FIG.1. … For example, the wireless device 1702 may comprise one of the APs 104, 302, 602, 902 or one of the STAs 112, 114, 116, 118, 306, 308, 310, 606, 608, 610, 906, 908, 910.) comprising:
one or more processors (Asterjadhi, 0188: The wireless device 1702 may include a processor 1704 which controls operation of the wireless device 1702.) configured to:
generate a frame including information on a target wake time (TWT) schedule The second topic relates to a broadcast TWT protocol in which a first wireless device, such as for example an AP, may determine a TWT schedule for one or more wireless devices (e.g., multiple STAs).);
set a first subfield of the frame to an address of a receiver device receiving the frame over a wireless local area network (WLAN) (Asterjadhi, 0054: The TWT element may be transmitted in an individually addressed management frame that can be of type action, action no ack, (re)association request/response, probe request response, etc., when the TWTs are negotiated between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, e.g., during a TWT setup phase.); and
wirelessly transmit, via a transmitter over the WLAN, the generated frame to the receiver device (Asterjadhi, 0010: The apparatus may be configured to broadcast a message that includes the TWT schedule to a number of wireless devices.).
Yet, Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach a restricted TWT (R-TWT) schedule that provides one or more service periods (SPs) during which collision is avoided or reduced;
However, in the related art, Fang teaches a restricted TWT (R-TWT) schedule that provides one or more service periods (SPs) during which collision is avoided or reduced (Fang, 0008: Embodiments of the present invention provide a traffic identifier (TID) based restricted target wake time (RTWT) service period (SP) that can be configured for either trigger-based transmission or EDCA-based transmission for time sensitive traffic or priority traffic to reduce the chance of contention/collision on time sensitive traffic or priority traffic caused by non-time sensitive traffic using an EDCA mechanism.);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Asterjadhi with the traffic identifier based restricted target wake time service period of Fang. The resulting invention would provide improved transmission reliability for time sensitive traffic over multiple wireless communication links in a wireless TSN (Fang, 0008).
Re. Claim 3, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to: determine whether a configuration value of the device is true (Asterjadhi, 0049: In one example, the TWT component 124 may be configured to receive, from a second wireless device, a first message that includes a first trigger field. The first trigger field may indicate whether the first message includes a request for a trigger message to be sent by the first wireless device at a start of a TWT service period.); and
in response to the configuration value of the device being true, set the first subfield of the frame to the address of the receiver device (Asterjadhi, 0049: The TWT component 124 may be configured to determine a TWT schedule based on the received first message. The TWT component 124 may be configured to transmit a second message to the second wireless device. The second message may include the TWT schedule and a second trigger field based on the determined TWT schedule. [It would be necessary to set the subfield of the frame to the address of the receiver device in order to send the frame to the correct location.]).
Re. Claim 4, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to set a second subfield of the frame to a value indicating that the frame is to convey the TWT schedule to one or more devices (Asterjadhi, 0010: The message may include a broadcast indicator that indicates the TWT schedule is a broadcast TWT schedule.).
Re. Claim 6, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein the frame is one of a Probe Response frame, an Association Response frame, a Reassociation Response frame, a TWT Setup frame, or a TWT Information frame (Asterjadhi, 0054: The TWT element may be transmitted in an individually addressed management frame that can be of type action, action no ack, (re)association request/response, probe request response, etc., when the TWTs are negotiated between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, e.g., during a TWT setup phase.).
Re. Claim 7, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein: the frame is an Action frame (Asterjadhi, 0054: The TWT element may be transmitted in an individually addressed management frame that can be of type action, action no ack, (re)association request/response, probe request response, etc., when the TWTs are negotiated between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, e.g., during a TWT setup phase.), and
the one or more processors are configured to set an action subfield of the Action frame to a value indicating TWT schedule information (Asterjadhi, 0058: Otherwise, if the TWT request field has a value of 0, then the TWT element 200 may represent a response to a request to initiate TWT scheduling/setup (solicit TWT), an unsolicited TWT (which is a response to initiate a TWT scheduling which is conceptually similar to the solicited TWT with the exception that the TWT requester STA did not send a TWT request to solicit this TWT response), and/or a non-negotiable TWT scheduling message (or a broadcast TWT message).).
Re. Claim 8, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches receive, via a receiver from the receiver device, another Action frame whose action subfield is set to the value indicating the TWT schedule information (Asterjadhi, 0054: The TWT element may be transmitted in an individually addressed management frame that can be of type action, action no ack, (re)association request/response, probe request response, etc., when the TWTs are negotiated between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, e.g., during a TWT setup phase. And 0055: In this embodiment, the TWT schedule and parameters are provided during the TWT setup phase and renegotiation/changes of TWT schedules are signaled via individually addressed frames that contain the updated TWT parameters. These frames can be management frames as described above, control frames or data frames that carry a field containing the updated TWT schedule and its related parameters. In another aspect, two STAs may negotiate a TWT schedule and one STA may be the TWT requester and the other STA may be the TWT responder.);
determine whether a request subfield of the another Action frame is set to a third value indicating a request for the TWT schedule information (Asterjadhi, 0058: The TWT request field may indicate whether the TWT element 200 represents a request. If TWT request field has a value of 1, then the TWT element 200 may represent a request to initiate TWT scheduling/setup.); and
in response to the request subfield of the another Action frame being set to the third value, set a request subfield of the Action frame to a fourth value that is different from the third value and indicates a response to the request for the TWT schedule information (Asterjadhi, 0058: Otherwise, if the TWT request field has a value of 0, then the TWT element 200 may represent a response to a request to initiate TWT scheduling/setup (solicit TWT), an unsolicited TWT (which is a response to initiate a TWT scheduling which is conceptually similar to the solicited TWT with the exception that the TWT requester STA did not send a TWT request to solicit this TWT response), and/or a non-negotiable TWT scheduling message (or a broadcast TWT message).).
Re. Claim 9, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
receive another frame from the receiver device (Asterjadhi, 0061: In an aspect, a TWT responder, who receives a TWT request from a TWT requester and whose value of the TWT wake interval is equal to the TWT requester's listen interval, may respond to the TWT request with either an accept TWT or a reject TWT in the TWT command field.);
determine whether a fourth subfield of the another frame is set to a sixth value indicating a request for TWT schedule information (Asterjadhi, 0061: In an aspect, a TWT responder, who receives a TWT request from a TWT requester and whose value of the TWT wake interval is equal to the TWT requester's listen interval, may respond to the TWT request with either an accept TWT or a reject TWT in the TWT command field.); and
in response to the fourth subfield of the another frame being set to the sixth value, generate the frame such that the frame is a response frame to the another frame (Asterjadhi, 0061: In the case of an accept TWT, the accept TWT may include the value of the allocated first target beacon transmit time in the TWT wake time field and the value of the listen interval between consecutive target beacon transmit times (TBTTs) in the TWT wake interval mantissa and the TWT wake interval exponent fields.).
Re. Claim 10, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Asterjadhi further teaches wherein the another frame is one of a Probe Request frame, a TWT Information frame, or a TWT Setup frame (Asterjadhi, 0053: FIG. 2 provides one exemplary diagram of a TWT element for TWT scheduling. And 0054: To enable a TWT scheduling, an AP and a STA, for example, may negotiate a target wake time using a TWT element that provides the necessary signaling between devices to schedule one or more target wake times and their corresponding parameters. The TWT element may be transmitted in an individually addressed management frame that can be of type action, action no ack, (re)association request/response, probe request response, etc., when the TWTs are negotiated between the first wireless device and the second wireless device, e.g., during a TWT setup phase.).
Re. Claim 11. Claim 11 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 1. Claim 11 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 1. Therefore, claim 11 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 1.
Re. Claim 13. Claim 13 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 3. Claim 13 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 3. Therefore, claim 13 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 3.
Re. Claim 14. Claim 14 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 4. Claim 14 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 4. Therefore, claim 14 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 4.
Re. Claim 16. Claim 16 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 6. Claim 16 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 6. Therefore, claim 16 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 6.
Re. Claim 17. Claim 17 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 7. Claim 17 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 7. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 7.
Re. Claim 18. Claim 18 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 8. Claim 18 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 8. Therefore, claim 18 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 8.
Re. Claim 19. Claim 19 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 9. Claim 19 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 9. Therefore, claim 19 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 9.
Re. Claim 20. Claim 20 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 10. Claim 20 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 10. Therefore, claim 20 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 10.
Claims 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asterjadhi in view of Fang, further in view of Kwon et al. (US 2021/0144637), Kwon hereinafter.
Re. Claim 5, Asterjadhi in view of Fang teaches claim 1.
Neither Asterjadhi nor Fang explicitly teaches wherein: the TWT schedule includes a plurality of TWT schedules including a first TWT schedule and a second TWT schedule, and the one or more processors are configured to set a second subfield of the frame to a first value indicating that the frame is to convey the first TWT schedule to one or more devices, and set a third subfield of the frame to a second value indicating the frame relates to negotiation of membership in the second TWT schedule.
However, in the related art, Kwon teaches wherein: the TWT schedule includes a plurality of TWT schedules including a first TWT schedule and a second TWT schedule (Kwon, 0024: Other specific examples in the instant disclosure may involve modifications to the TWT element format to include a multi-link indication, and the TWT agreement may include using an individual TWT parameter set information field which includes a link bitmap to indicate to which link or links the TWT agreement may be applied.), and
the one or more processors are configured to set a second subfield of the frame to a first value indicating that the frame is to convey the first TWT schedule to one or more devices (Kwon, 0024: Other specific examples in the instant disclosure may involve modifications to the TWT element format to include a multi-link indication, and the TWT agreement may include using an individual TWT parameter set information field which includes a link bitmap to indicate to which link or links the TWT agreement may be applied.), and
set a third subfield of the frame to a second value indicating the frame relates to negotiation of membership in the second TWT schedule (Kwon, 0024: Other specific examples in the instant disclosure may involve modifications to the TWT element format to include a multi-link indication, and the TWT agreement may include using an individual TWT parameter set information field which includes a link bitmap to indicate to which link or links the TWT agreement may be applied.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine the invention of Asterjadhi as modified by the teaching of Fang with the target wake time negotiation in a multi-link wireless LAN system of Kwon. The resulting invention would help reduce contention between clients and increase the amount of time a client device can spend in power save mode (Kwon, 0001).
Re. Claim 15. Claim 15 is directed toward a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 5. Claim 15 does not further limit or define over the subject matter of claim 5. Therefore, claim 15 is rejected for similar reason as laid out with regard to claim 5.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CASON H MORSE whose telephone number is (571)270-5235. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-6:00 Mon.-Thurs., Fri. varies.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rebecca Song can be reached at (571) 270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/C.H.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2417
/REBECCA E SONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2417