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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 submissions filed on June 02, 2026 and June 25, 2026 have 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.
Claims 1-2, 4, 6-9 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song et al. (US 2013/0035084, Song hereafter, cited on IDS filed May 24, 2023) in view of Non-Patent Literature(“Link Quality-based Transmission Power Adaptation for Energy Saving in IEEE 802.11”, NPL hereafter).
RE claims 1 and 19, Song discloses a wireless device and method performed by a wireless device comprising memory circuitry, processor circuitry, and a wireless interface, wherein the wireless device is configured to: - obtain a cellular parameter indicative of cellular channel quality (Paragraph 32 and Figure 5 discloses” The mobile wireless device 102 can measure a downlink signal power level received from the radio access subsystem 106.”) ; - determine, based on the cellular parameter, a first energy parameter indicative of an amount of energy required for performing a communication of data (Paragraph 32 and Figure 5: “In conjunction with system information provided by the radio access subsystem 106, the mobile wireless device 102 can calculate an initial transmit power level to use for the RACH preamble 504. “); and - transmit the data (Figure 5 and Paragraphs 32-35, the RACH preamble is transmitted and repeated with ramping power level. Data is then transmitted at the power level that successfully elicits an ACK from the AP).
Song does not explicitly disclose the device is further configured to: -obtain a network parameter indicative of a network condition in which the transmission of the data occurred; - determine, based on the cellular parameter and the network parameter, a second energy parameter; - and upon an update parameter meeting a criterion, the update parameter being based on the second energy parameter, update the first energy parameter based on the second energy parameter and the cellular parameter.
However, NPL teaches to: -obtain a network parameter indicative of a network condition in which the transmission of the data occurred; - determine, based on the cellular parameter and the network parameter, a second energy parameter (Section III teaches a transmit power adaptation saving method whereby power level is determined based upon a table that corelates power with received signal strength and with a packet delivery ratio. ); - and upon an update parameter meeting a criterion, the update parameter being based on the second energy parameter, update the first energy parameter based on the second energy parameter and the cellular parameter (Section III further teaches adjustment of the transmit power in order to achieve a target PDR and further estimated PDR and measurements are updated periodically to account for link changes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 2, Song in view of NPL: discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that Song further discloses wherein the wireless device is configured to:- determine, based on the cellular parameter, the first energy parameter using a first model that provides a correlation between the cellular parameter and an energy measurement measured by a power analyser (Paragraph 32 and Figure 5: “In conjunction with system information provided by the radio access subsystem 106, the mobile wireless device 102 can calculate an initial transmit power level to use for the RACH preamble 504. “. Figure 5 and Paragraphs 32-35 further disclose, the RACH preamble is transmitted and repeated with ramping power level. Data is then transmitted at the power level that successfully elicits an ACK from the AP).
RE claim 4, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the wireless device is configured to:- determine, based on the cellular parameter and the network parameter, the second energy parameter using a second model that provides a correlation of the cellular parameter and the network parameter with an energy measurement measured by a power analyser ( Section 3A: “However, the real channel correlation can be quite different as shown in Fig. 1 and this is also indicated in [6]. Therefore, a good mechanism of learning this correlation is required. Meanwhile, the correlation may change due to several reasons, such as an environmental change, multipath, and interference. The mechanism should not only use one correlation learned from the beginning or even earlier. Instead, a self-adapting mechanism is required. Therefore, we divided the proposed mechanism into two phases; the initialization phase and the updating phase. The initialization phase tries to quickly learn or “guess” the correlation between the transmit power and the PDR once a new communication link is established. The updating phase keep on updating this correlation during the whole communication period” and see further Section III C).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 6, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the wireless device is configured to determine whether the update parameter meets the criterion (Section III teaches a transmit power adaptation saving method whereby power level is determined based upon a table that corelates power with received signal strength and with a packet delivery ratio. Section III further teaches adjustment of the transmit power in order to achieve a target PDR and further estimated PDR and measurements are updated periodically to account for link changes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 7, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the update parameter comprises the second energy parameter (Section III teaches a transmit power adaptation saving method whereby power level is determined based upon a table that corelates power with received signal strength and with a packet delivery ratio. Section III further teaches adjustment of the transmit power in order to achieve a target PDR and further estimated PDR and measurements are updated periodically to account for link changes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 8, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the update parameter comprises a difference between the first energy parameter and the second energy parameter (Section III teaches a transmit power adaptation saving method whereby power level is determined based upon a table that corelates power with received signal strength and with a packet delivery ratio. Section III further teaches adjustment of the transmit power in order to achieve a target PDR and further estimated PDR and measurements are updated periodically to account for link changes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 9, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the criterion is based on a threshold (Section III teaches a transmit power adaptation saving method whereby power level is determined based upon a table that corelates power with received signal strength and with a packet delivery ratio. Section III further teaches adjustment of the transmit power in order to achieve a target PDR and further estimated PDR and measurements are updated periodically to account for link changes).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 13, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the update parameter comprises a number of data sets for an update for an environment ( Section 3A: “However, the real channel correlation can be quite different as shown in Fig. 1 and this is also indicated in [6]. Therefore, a good mechanism of learning this correlation is required. Meanwhile, the correlation may change due to several reasons, such as an environmental change, multipath, and interference. The mechanism should not only use one correlation learned from the beginning or even earlier. Instead, a self-adapting mechanism is required. Therefore, we divided the proposed mechanism into two phases; the initialization phase and the updating phase. The initialization phase tries to quickly learn or “guess” the correlation between the transmit power and the PDR once a new communication link is established. The updating phase keep on updating this correlation during the whole communication period” and see further Section III C).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 14, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the update parameter meets the criterion when the number of data sets is equal to or greater than a minimum number of data sets and equal to or less than a maximum number of data sets ( Section 3A: “However, the real channel correlation can be quite different as shown in Fig. 1 and this is also indicated in [6]. Therefore, a good mechanism of learning this correlation is required. Meanwhile, the correlation may change due to several reasons, such as an environmental change, multipath, and interference. The mechanism should not only use one correlation learned from the beginning or even earlier. Instead, a self-adapting mechanism is required. Therefore, we divided the proposed mechanism into two phases; the initialization phase and the updating phase. The initialization phase tries to quickly learn or “guess” the correlation between the transmit power and the PDR once a new communication link is established. The updating phase keep on updating this correlation during the whole communication period” and see further Section III C).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
RE claim 15, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that Song further discloses wherein the wireless device is configured to transmit, upon the first energy parameter meeting a condition, the data (Figure 5 and Paragraphs 32-35, the RACH preamble is transmitted and repeated with ramping power level. Data is then transmitted at the power level that successfully elicits an ACK from the AP).
RE claim 16, Song in view of HPOL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further discloses wherein the cellular parameter includes one or more of: a signal strength, a signal to noise ratio, a bit error rate, a timing advance and a size of data to be transmitted (Paragraph 6, RSSI).
RE claim 17, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that NPL further teaches wherein the at least one network parameter comprises one or more of: a duration of transmission of the data, a number of retransmissions of the data, a throughput parameter and an uplink quality of transmission of the data (Section III, packet delivery ratio).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment
RE claim 18, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that Song further discloses wherein the first energy parameter, the second energy parameter, or both the first energy parameter and the second energy parameter comprise a plurality of energy levels (Figure 5 and Paragraphs 32-35, the RACH preamble is transmitted and repeated with ramping power level. Data is then transmitted at the power level that successfully elicits an ACK from the AP).
RE claim 20, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 1 as set forth above. Note that Song further discloses wherein the cellular parameter comprises one or more of: a signal strength (Paragraph 32 and Figure 5 discloses” The mobile wireless device 102 can measure a downlink signal power level received from the radio access subsystem 106.”), a signal to noise ratio, a bit error rate, a timing advance, and a size of data to be transmitted.
Song does not explicitly disclose wherein the network parameter comprises one or more of: a duration of transmission of the data, a number of retransmissions of the data, a throughput parameter, an uplink quality of transmission of the data, a number of transport blocks (TBs) received with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error, and a transmitting or receiving Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) parameter.
However, NPL teaches wherein the network parameter comprises one or more of: a duration of transmission of the data, a number of retransmissions of the data, a throughput parameter, an uplink quality of transmission of the data (Section III, packet delivery ratio), a number of transport blocks (TBs) received with cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error, and a transmitting or receiving Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) parameter
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device and method of Song with the teachings of NPL in order to provide for improved transmit power control of a wireless device through more adaptive adjustment.
Claims 3 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song in view of NPL and further in view of Lyon et al (US 2019/0281476, Lyon hereafter).
RE claim 3, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 2 as set forth above. Song in view of NPL does not explicitly disclose wherein the first model is one or more of: a feed forward neural network, a support vector machine and a random forest.
However, Lyon teaches wherein the first model is one or more of: a feed forward neural network, a support vector machine, and a random forest (Paragraph 42 teaches, with respect to troubleshooting a network, “The machine learning model 210 can be a neural network (e.g., a feed-forward neural network or a recurrent neural network), a random forest, a support vector machine, a linear regression model, a nearest-neighbor model, or any other appropriate machine learning model (or combination of machine learning models).”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device of Song in view of NPL with the teachings of Lyon since such a modification would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement. NPL teaches use of machine learning but is silent on a specific model. Lyon teaches that all the claimed models are known in the art for network analysis.
Where a claimed improvement on a device or apparatus is no more than "the simple substitution of one known element for another or the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
RE claim 5, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 4 as set forth above. Song in view of NPL does not explicitly disclose wherein the second model is one or more of: a feed forward neural network, a support vector machine, and a random forest.
However, Lyon teaches wherein the second model is one or more of: a feed forward neural network, a support vector machine, and a random forest (Paragraph 42 teaches, with respect to troubleshooting a network, “The machine learning model 210 can be a neural network (e.g., a feed-forward neural network or a recurrent neural network), a random forest, a support vector machine, a linear regression model, a nearest-neighbor model, or any other appropriate machine learning model (or combination of machine learning models).”).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device of Song in view of NPL with the teachings of Lyon since such a modification would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement. NPL teaches use of machine learning but is silent on a specific model. Lyon teaches that all the claimed models are known in the art for network analysis.
Where a claimed improvement on a device or apparatus is no more than "the simple substitution of one known element for another or the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song in view of NPL and further in view of Andersson et al. (US 6,334,047, Andersson hereafter).
RE claim 10, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 4 as set forth above. Song in view of NPL does not explicitly disclose wherein the criterion is based on a first threshold, and wherein the update parameter meets the criterion when the difference between the first energy parameter and the second energy parameter is greater than the first threshold.
However, Andersson teaches wherein the criterion is based on a first threshold, and wherein the update parameter meets the criterion when the difference between the first energy parameter and the second energy parameter is greater than the first threshold (Column 5, lines 42-57, “The value of a signal parameter detected from a signal received by the radio transceiver is compared with a desired signal parameter value, and a difference is determined. A transmit power control command is sent to the radio transceiver and may instruct, for example, an increase or decrease in the level of radio transmit power. Associated with the transmit power control command is a power control indicator indicating which type of power control adjustment should be used by the radio transceiver depending upon the determined difference.)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device of Song in view of NPL with the teachings of Andersson since such a modification would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement.
Where a claimed improvement on a device or apparatus is no more than "the simple substitution of one known element for another or the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
Claims 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song in view of NPL and further in view of Kfir et al (US 2010/0131999, Kfir hereafter).
RE claim 11, Song in view of NPL discloses the wireless device according to claim 4 as set forth above. Song in view of NPL does not explicitly disclose wherein the update parameter comprises a confidence score of the second energy parameter (Paragraph 28, “ receiving a request to change the transmit power levels for one or more individual transmit channels, calculating a confidence level for performing a self-configuration of the amplifier within a particular time period and self-configuring the gain of the amplifier to optimize transmit output power of the channels if the confidence level exceeds a threshold.”)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device of Song in view of NPL with the teachings of Kfir since such a modification would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement.
Where a claimed improvement on a device or apparatus is no more than "the simple substitution of one known element for another or the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
RE claim 12, Song in view of NPL and further in view of Kfir discloses the wireless device according to claim 11 as set forth above. Note that Kfir further teaches wherein the criterion is based on a second, and wherein the update parameter meets the criterion when the confidence score of the second energy parameter is greater than the second threshold (Paragraph 28, “ receiving a request to change the transmit power levels for one or more individual transmit channels, calculating a confidence level for performing a self-configuration of the amplifier within a particular time period and self-configuring the gain of the amplifier to optimize transmit output power of the channels if the confidence level exceeds a threshold.”)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the wireless device of Song in view of NPL with the teachings of Kfir since such a modification would have involved the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement.
Where a claimed improvement on a device or apparatus is no more than "the simple substitution of one known element for another or the mere application of a known technique to a piece of prior art ready for improvement," the claim is unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. 103(a). Ex Parte Smith, 83 USPQ.2d 1509, 1518-19 (BPAI, 2007) (citing KSR v. Teleflex, 127 S.Ct. 1727, 1740, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007)).
Conclusion
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/James P Duffy/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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