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
The Amendment filed on 6/23/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application and rejected.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 6/25/2026 (office action appendix used for the telephonic interview held on 6/22/2026) have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant’s argument on page 2 that examiner has not established that Fang (US PGPub 2023/0104554) is prior art to the present application and further argues that although Fang purports to claim priority to two provisional applications allegedly filed in 2021, it is not clear that those two provisional applications adequately disclose the features in Fang on which the examiner relies for the instant rejection, the examiner cannot concur with the applicant because of the reasons described below.
Fang claims two US provisional applications (#63/251,709 filed 10/4/2021, #63/280,629 filed 11/9/2021) as continuity data. Examiner reviewed the disclosed specification of both provisional applications and found the disclosures of the coordinated transmission in multi-AP network and its associated features. Examiner believes that the disclosed features of both provisional applications of Fang are enough to teach the limitations of the independent claims 1, 8 and 15 of the present application. Therefore, Fang is eligible to be prior art for the rejection to the present application.
In response to applicant’s argument on page 2 that Fang fails to teach the limitations of claims 1, 8 and 15, especially the limitation of “sending the list of available radio links to the non-AP MLD, wherein the non-AP MLD selects the at least one additional radio link and makes a connection using the at least one additional radio link on the second AP MLD while maintaining the connection between the first AP MLD and the non-AP MLD”, the examiner cannot concur with the applicant because of the reasons described below.
Applicant argues that Fang discusses switching links (i.e., disconnecting from one link in order to connect to a different link). See, e.g., Fang " [0005] ("For example, after association, a wireless device may switch to a different wireless link if a more suitable wireless link is available." (emphasis added), [0092] ("At step 1220, the STA selects an available BSS that is determined to have sufficient coverage to the STA and switches transmission on the selected BSS." (emphasis added)). Thus, Fang does not describe "the non-AP MLD selects the at least one additional radio link and makes a connection using the at least one additional radio link on the second AP MLD while maintaining the connection between the first AP MLD and the non-AP MLD (see page 2 of the office action appendix used for the telephonic interview held on 6/22/2026).
On the contrary to the applicant’s arguments, figure 9 and figure 13 of Fang teaches about the detailed steps of a process for performing coordinated transmission in a multi-AP wireless network. Fang teaches that the STA receives one or more beacon frames from one or more APs of a second AP MLD operating different BSSs. The beacon frames can include transmission information of the BSSs such as Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and PPDU type (e.g., duplicate or non-duplicate), or an RNR including a Budget Link Difference Indication bit (Fang, see paragraph 0096). The STA determines coverage information for one or more BSSs operated by APs of the second AP MLD according to the transmission information of the beacon frames. The STA reports the determined coverage information (of the second AP MLD) to the first AP MLD. The first and second APs perform coordinated transmission according to the coverage information. The first and second APs can perform coordinated CSR transmission on the 5 GHz wireless link and can perform coordinated multi-AP transmissions, such as forming coordinated transmission groups, performing coordinated spatial reuse, performing coordinated beam forming, performing coordinated joint transmissions, etc. (Fang, see paragraphs 0097-0099). Therefore, the STA establishes the simultaneous connections with the first AP and the second AP for coordinated transmissions.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Fang (US PGPub 2023/0104554).
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Fang teaches a method of aiding selection of at least one additional radio link (Fang, see paragraph 0094, FIG. 13 is a flow chart depicting an exemplary sequence of computer implemented steps of a process 1300 for performing coordinated transmission in a multi-AP wireless network according to embodiments of the present invention), the method comprising:
establishing a connection using a radio link between a first access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) and a non-AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0095, At step 1305, an STA associates with an AP of a first AP MLD operating a BSS on a wireless link (e.g., a 2.4 GHz wireless link));
obtaining a set of indicators for a plurality of radio links, wherein the set of indicators includes key performance indicators for each radio link of the plurality of radio links and available resources via each radio link (Fang, see paragraph 0096, transmission information of the BSSs such as Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and PPDU type (e.g., duplicate or non-duplicate), or an RNR including a Budget Link Difference Indication bit, for example);
forming a list of available radio links based on the key performance indicators and available resources, the list of available radio links being those present on a second AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0096, At step 1310, the STA receives one or more beacon frames from one or more APs of a second AP MLD operating different BSSs. The beacon frames can include transmission information of the BSSs);
receiving a request for the at least one additional radio link from the non-AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0096, At step 1310, the STA receives one or more beacon frames from one or more APs of a second AP MLD operating different BSSs. The beacon frames can include transmission information of the BSSs); and
sending the list of available radio links to the non-AP MLD, wherein the non-AP MLD selects the at least one additional radio link and makes a connection using the at least one additional radio link on the second AP MLD while maintaining the connection between the first AP MLD and the non-AP MLD (Fang, see paragraphs 0097-0099, At step 1315, the STA determines coverage information for one or more BSSs operated by APs of the second AP MLD according to the transmission information of the beacon frames received in step 1310. Step 1315 can include determining path loss information for the different BSSs. At step 1320, the STA reports the determined coverage information (of the second AP MLD) to the first AP MLD. At step 1325, the first and second APs perform coordinated transmission according to the coverage information reported in step 1320. For example, the first and second APs can perform coordinated CSR transmission on the 5 GHz wireless link and can perform coordinated multi-AP transmissions, such as forming coordinated transmission groups, performing coordinated spatial reuse, performing coordinated beam forming, performing coordinated joint transmissions, etc.).
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Fang teaches wherein forming the list of available radio links includes executing a function in which the first AP MLD and the second AP MLD exchange information regarding performance characteristics of each AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0052, Embodiments of the present invention are drawn to systems, apparatus and methods that provide transmission information of different APs to a wireless device during link discovery).
Regarding claims 3, 10 and 17, Fang teaches wherein the performance characteristics include a channel width, jitter, and a delay encountered over a time interval (Fang, see paragraph 0090, transmission information of another AP operating a different BSS, such as a reported AP affiliated with the AP MLD operating on a different wireless link (e.g., a 5 Ghz or 6 Ghz wireless link). The transmission information of the AP may include beacon transmission parameters, such as beacon Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and/or PPDU type, for example, and the beacon transmission parameters may be carried in a beacon frame received from a reporting AP affiliated with the AP MLD).
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 18, Fang teaches wherein the performance characteristics include a local distance metric based on mean travel time between the first and second AP MLD and between the first and second AP MLDs and a gateway connected to the first and second AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0090, transmission information of another AP operating a different BSS, such as a reported AP affiliated with the AP MLD operating on a different wireless link (e.g., a 5 Ghz or 6 Ghz wireless link). The transmission information of the AP may include beacon transmission parameters, such as beacon Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and/or PPDU type, for example, and the beacon transmission parameters may be carried in a beacon frame received from a reporting AP affiliated with the AP MLD).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 19, Fang teaches wherein the non-AP MLD specifies a set of requirements in the request (Fang, see paragraph 0090, transmission information of another AP operating a different BSS, such as a reported AP affiliated with the AP MLD operating on a different wireless link (e.g., a 5 Ghz or 6 Ghz wireless link). The transmission information of the AP may include beacon transmission parameters, such as beacon Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and/or PPDU type, for example, and the beacon transmission parameters may be carried in a beacon frame received from a reporting AP affiliated with the AP MLD); and
wherein forming the list of available radio links includes sorting the list of available radio links according to the set of requirements (Fang, see paragraph 0090, the STA receives transmission information of another AP operating a different BSS, such as a reported AP affiliated with the AP MLD operating on a different wireless link (e.g., a 5 Ghz or 6 Ghz wireless link). The transmission information of the AP may include beacon transmission parameters, such as beacon Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and/or PPDU type, for example, and the beacon transmission parameters may be carried in a beacon frame received from a reporting AP affiliated with the AP MLD).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 20, Fang teaches further comprising:
receiving an action frame from the non-AP MLD, the action frame indicating that the list of available radio links is insufficient for the non-AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0009, the beacon transmission parameters are carried in an STA Info field of a multi-link (ML) element carried in a beacon frame transmitted by the first AP); and
sending an alternate available radio link to the non-AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0010, the beacon transmission parameters include at least one of: a transmit power parameter; a channel bandwidth parameter; and a transmission data rate parameter).
Regarding claims 7 and 14, Fang teaches wherein the available resources include a router coupled via a wired network to the first AP MLD and the second AP MLD (Fang, see paragraph 0090, transmission information of another AP operating a different BSS, such as a reported AP affiliated with the AP MLD operating on a different wireless link (e.g., a 5 Ghz or 6 Ghz wireless link). The transmission information of the AP may include beacon transmission parameters, such as beacon Tx power, channel frequency, MCS rate, and/or PPDU type, for example, and the beacon transmission parameters may be carried in a beacon frame received from a reporting AP affiliated with the AP MLD).
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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, Nicholas R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/NICHOLAS R TAYLOR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2443
