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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/13/2025 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 7, 8, 13, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dong US 2025/0113230 in view of Dong US2025/0150853 “Dong-1” and further in view of Pushkarna et al. “Pushkarna” US 2025/0150128.
Regarding claim 1, Dong teaches a method for setting up a sensing measurement instance and allocating resource units between responders in a sensing measurement instance comprising:
Transmit, by an access point, a sensing measurement setup frame (step 320 of Figure 3), the sensing measurement setup frame including a sensing measurement parameter field, the sensing measurement parameter field comprising a channel state information (CSI) feedback (FB) support subfield (the sensing measurement setup message defines information for WLAN sensing and feedback information which is associated with/based on channel state information; Paragraphs 37-41. The setup message can include CSI information related to the feedback; Paragraph 92. Thus one can see there is a field within the measurement setup message that includes feedback information pertaining to CSI);
wherein a value associated with the CSI FB support field is indicative of whether the apparatus can provide CSI FB information and feedback (paragraph 51 teaches within the sensing measurement message there is 1 bit associated with the feedback abilities).
Dong does not disclose transmitting by a AP or STA a sensing polling trigger for sensing measurement instances including a RU allocation and reusing the RU allocation in a trigger frame sounding phase and a NDPA of the measurement instance. Dong-1 teaches an access point, in the polling phase, sending a trigger frame for measurement information; Paragraph 50 and Figure 6c. The information allocates resources to the station; Paragraph 58. Further, Dong-1 teaches Figures 6a-6c which cover various phases of the system (polling, measurement, and feedback) and are all trigger-based; Paragraph 36. Paragraph 58 teaches the resource unit allocation is for the device to send the response frames. Thus one can see the RU is re-used across the various phases. Figure 6C shows the use of NDPA, NDP trigger frames and measurement response messaging).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include reusing RU allocation across multiple phases including polling triggers and NDPA frames as taught by Dong-1.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can allocate resources for response messages and the AP detect the station is available as taught by Dong-1; Paragraph 50.
The prior art does not expressly disclose a separate measurement report type field distinct from the CSI field; however, Pushkarna teaches, in a sensing frame, a measurement report type field which is separate than the CSI feedback fields (NC, NR index fields); Figure 9 and paragraph 68.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include a separate report type field and CSI field as taught by Pushkarna.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can indicate the CSI dimensions by indicated the rows and/or columns that are, or are not, reduced as taught by Pushkarna; Paragraph 68.
Regarding claims 2, 8, and 14, Dong teaches the CSI FB field is one bit (Paragraph 51 teaches one bit associated with the feedback).
Regarding claim 7, Dong teaches an apparatus for setting up a sensing measurement instance and allocating resource units between responders in a sensing measurement instance comprising:
at least one processor and at least one machine-readable medium storing executable instructions which when executed by the at least one processor (Figure 6) configure the apparatus to:
transmit a sensing measurement setup frame (step 320 of Figure 3), the sensing measurement setup frame including a sensing measurement parameter field, the sensing measurement parameter field comprising a channel state information (CSI) feedback (FB) support subfield (the sensing measurement setup message defines information for WLAN sensing and feedback information which is associated with/based on channel state information; Paragraphs 37-41. The setup message can include CSI information related to the feedback; Paragraph 92. Thus one can see there is a field within the measurement setup message that includes feedback information pertaining to CSI);
wherein a value associated with the CSI FB support field is indicative of whether the apparatus can provide CSI FB information and feedback (paragraph 51 teaches within the sensing measurement message there is 1 bit associated with the feedback abilities).
Dong does not disclose transmitting by a AP or STA a sensing polling trigger for sensing measurement instances in a polling phase including a RU allocation and reusing the RU allocation in a trigger frame sounding phase and a NDPA of the measurement instance without a further transmission of the RU allocation in the TF sounding phase or the NDPA sounding phase. Dong-1 teaches an access point, in the polling phase, sending a trigger frame for measurement information; Paragraph 50 and Figure 6c. The information allocates resources to the station; Paragraph 58. Further, Dong-1 teaches Figures 6a-6c which cover various phases of the system (polling, measurement, and feedback) and are all trigger-based; Paragraph 36. Paragraph 58 teaches the resource unit allocation is for the device to send the response frames. Thus one can see the RU is re-used across the various phases and there isn’t additional information being sent in the TF or NDPA sounding phase. Figure 6C shows the use of NDPA, NDP trigger frames and measurement response messaging).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include reusing RU allocation across multiple phases including polling triggers and NDPA frames as taught by Dong-1.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can allocate resources for response messages and the AP detect the station is available as taught by Dong-1; Paragraph 50.
The prior art does not expressly disclose a separate measurement report type field distinct from the CSI field; however, Pushkarna teaches, in a sensing frame, a measurement report type field which is separate than the CSI feedback fields (NC, NR index fields); Figure 9 and paragraph 68.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include a separate report type field and CSI field as taught by Pushkarna.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can indicate the CSI dimensions by indicated the rows and/or columns that are, or are not, reduced as taught by Pushkarna; Paragraph 68.
Regarding claim 13, Dong teaches a medium (paragraph 99) for setting up a sensing measurement instance and allocating resource units between responders in a sensing measurement instance comprising instructions configured to:
transmit a sensing measurement setup frame (step 320 of Figure 3), the sensing measurement setup frame including a sensing measurement parameter field, the sensing measurement parameter field comprising a channel state information (CSI) feedback (FB) support subfield (the sensing measurement setup message defines information for WLAN sensing and feedback information which is associated with/based on channel state information; Paragraphs 37-41. The setup message can include CSI information related to the feedback; Paragraph 92. Thus one can see there is a field within the measurement setup message that includes feedback information pertaining to CSI);
wherein a value associated with the CSI FB support field is indicative of whether the apparatus can provide CSI FB information and feedback (paragraph 51 teaches within the sensing measurement message there is 1 bit associated with the feedback abilities).
Dong does not disclose transmitting by a AP or STA a sensing polling trigger for sensing measurement instances including a RU allocation and reusing the RU allocation in a trigger frame sounding phase and a NDPA of the measurement instance to receive a NDP and CSI report. Dong-1 teaches an access point, in the polling phase, sending a trigger frame for measurement information; Paragraph 50 and Figure 6c. The information allocates resources to the station; Paragraph 58. Further, Dong-1 teaches Figures 6a-6c which cover various phases of the system (polling, measurement, and feedback) and are all trigger-based; Paragraph 36. Paragraph 58 teaches the resource unit allocation is for the device to send the response frames. Thus one can see the RU is re-used across the various phases which includes NDP and CSI. Figure 6C shows the use of NDPA, NDP trigger frames and measurement response messaging).
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include reusing RU allocation across multiple phases including polling triggers and NDPA frames as taught by Dong-1.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can allocate resources for response messages and the AP detect the station is available as taught by Dong-1; Paragraph 50.
The prior art does not expressly disclose a separate measurement report type field distinct from the CSI field; however, Pushkarna teaches, in a sensing frame, a measurement report type field which is separate than the CSI feedback fields (NC, NR index fields); Figure 9 and paragraph 68.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of the prior art to include a separate report type field and CSI field as taught by Pushkarna.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system can indicate the CSI dimensions by indicated the rows and/or columns that are, or are not, reduced as taught by Pushkarna; Paragraph 68.
Claim(s) 3, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dong in view of Dong-1 in view of Pushkarna and further in view of IEEE “Sensing Measurement Setup” IEEE 802.11-22/0229r0 submitted in applicant’s IDS, hereinafter “IEEE”.
Regarding claims 3, 9, and 15, Dong teaches the parameter field includes an immediate feedback field (Paragraph 51 teaches a bit associated with providing immediate feedback), but dong does not expressly disclose the measurement parameter field further including a role, measurement report type, and immediate feedback field. IEEE teaches the parameter fields of a sensing measurement frame includes a 2-bit Role field, measurement report type, and 1-bit immediate feedback field; Figure 9-xxx, See Page 4.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include the three fields as taught by IEEE.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the devices can properly set the role of a sensing responder, type of measurement report to be expected, and determine whether or not immediate feedback is required as taught by IEEE See Page 4 under the Figure 9-xxx description.
Regarding claims 5, 11, and 17, Dong does not expressly disclose the role subfield is separated into TX/RX subfields; however, IEEE teaches the parameter fields of a sensing measurement frame includes a 2-bit Role field which indicates the sensing device as a receiver, transmitter or both; Figure 9-xxx, See Page 4. This field is a 2-bit field thus viewed as TX/RX subfields.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include the role field as defined by IEEE.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the devices can properly set the role of a sensing responder as a transmitter, receiver or both as taught by IEEE See Page 4 under the Figure 9-xxx description.
Regarding claims 6, 12, and 18, Dong does not expressly disclose the role subfield is2-bits; however, IEEE teaches the parameter fields of a sensing measurement frame includes a 2-bit Role field which indicates the sensing device as a receiver, transmitter or both; Figure 9-xxx, See Page 4. This field is a 2-bit field.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Dong to include the role field as 2-bits as defined by IEEE.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the devices can properly set the role of a sensing responder as a transmitter, receiver or both as taught by IEEE See Page 4 under the Figure 9-xxx description.
Claim(s) 4, 10, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dong in view of Dong-1 in view of Pushkarna and further in view of Wu et al. “Wu” CN-112054831-A, see attached for English translation/citations.
Regarding claims 4, 10, and 16, While Dong teaches a 1-bit field for indicating feedback with respect to CSI (See paragraph 51), Dong does not expressly disclose the value being 0 when the AP/STA cannot compute the feedback and is 1 when the AP/STA can compute feedback information. Wu teaches in order a value of 1 to represent the capability of the terminal not to feedback (i.e. not computer) and the value is 1 indicating the capability is to feedback (i.e. can compute). The feedback information is associated with CSI information; Page 18, Figure 8, paragraph starts with “optionally, the third capability”.
Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing to modify the teachings of Don’t to include indicating if the STA/AP can compute CSI feedback or not as taught by Wu.
One would be motivated to make the modification such that the system knows whether or not the station can feedback or not feedback information as taught by Wu; Page 18, Figure 8, paragraph starts with “optionally, the third capability”.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-18 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.
Conclusion
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/BRANDON M RENNER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411