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 .
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 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) 1-8,11-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yoon et al (US 20260261918 A1) hereinafter as Yoon in view of Huang et al (US 20250393090 A1) hereinafter as Huang with foreign priority to Aug 28, 2023 (202311095345.5).
Regarding claim(s) 1,15,17, Yoon discloses an apparatus for a non-collocated AP multi-link device (MLD), the apparatus comprising memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to (See Fig(s). 1 with processor 111 and memory 112):
encode a management frame, the management frame comprising a neighbor report element, the neighbor report element comprising a recommended AP field and a multi-link element (See ¶ 94, 193, the mobile device may obtain an ID of the second MLD. The group ID and the ID of the second MLD may be obtained by receiving a management frame including at least one of a reduced neighbor report (RNR) element or a Basic Multi-link element.)
the recommended AP field indicating an identification of a recommended AP (See ¶ 97, an MLD (AP MLD and/or non-AP MLD) can transmit information about links that the MLD can support through ML setup. ….. information about the location/band/resource of uplink/downlink links supported by the MLD (or STA), 4) information about the type of frame (management, control, data, etc.) available or preferred in at least one uplink/downlink Link… the use of preferred is interpreted as recommended),
the multi-link element comprising a collocated AP MLD field, the collocated AP MLD field indicating an identification of a collocated AP MLD, wherein the recommended AP is affiliated with the collocated AP MLD (See ¶ 5, performing an association procedure with a first access point (AP) affiliated with a first multi-link device (MLD); obtaining a group identifier (ID) of a roaming group including the first MLD;…..See Fig(s). 16, See ¶ 175, APs belonging to/affiliated with each AP MLD are located in the same or similar locations, i.e., collocated. Collocated APs may mean they belong to the same physical device, or they may be logically located in similar locations, even if they are not on the same physical device.).
Yoon fails to disclose configure the non-collocated AP MLD to transmit the management frame to a non-AP MLD.
Huang discloses configure the non-collocated AP MLD to transmit the management frame to a non-AP MLD (See ¶ 7,10, The communication frame may include a management frame. The first AP MLD may include a non-collocated AP MLD, and the second AP MLD may include a collocated AP MLD…. a non-AP MLD may learn of, by using a link identifier, the link established by the non-AP MLD. However, for the UHR system, when a UHR non-AP MLD is associated with a non-collocated AP MLD and establishes a link with a collocated AP MLD).
AP MLD and non-AP MLD can be used only as a control plane, that is, used only for transmitting a control frame and/or a management frame for linking of the desired APs.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Huang within Yoon, so as to link desired APs.
Regarding claim(s) 2, Yoon discloses wherein the non-collocated AP MLD comprises the collocated AP MLD (See Fig(s). 2).
Regarding claim(s) 3,16,18,19, Yoon discloses wherein the multi-link element further comprises an indication of whether the non-collocated AP MLD comprises the collocated AP MLD (See ¶ abstract, 5, group IDs).
Regarding claim(s) 4,20, Yoon discloses wherein the non-AP MLD is associated with the non-collocated AP MLD (See Fig(s). 4, See ¶ 90) .
Regarding claim(s) 5, Yoon discloses wherein the management frame is a basic service set (BSS) transition management request frame, BSS transition management query frame, or a BSS transition management response frame (See Fig(s). 2, See ¶ 63).
Regarding claim(s) 6, Yoon discloses wherein the recommended AP is a first recommended AP, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode the multi-link element to further comprise a per-station (STA) profile sub element, the per STA profile sub element comprising a link identification of a second recommended AP (See ¶ 97, an MLD (AP MLD and/or non-AP MLD) can transmit information about links that the MLD can support through ML setup. ….. information about the location/band/resource of uplink/downlink links supported by the MLD (or STA), 4) information about the type of frame (management, control, data, etc.) available or preferred in at least one uplink/downlink Link… the use of preferred is interpreted as recommended).
Regarding claim(s) 7, Yoon discloses wherein the identification of the recommended AP is a link identification of the recommended AP (See Fig(s). 3, See ¶ 73, a network discovery operation including an active scanning process. In active scanning, a STA performing scanning transmits a probe request frame and waits for a response to the probe request frame in order to identify which AP is present around while moving to channels.).
Regarding claim(s) 8, Yoon discloses wherein the identification of the collocated AP MLD is a media access control (MAC) address of the collocated AP MLD (See ¶ 81, A multi-link device (MLD) can support multiple affiliated STAs, operate using one or more affiliated STAs, and provide a single MAC data service and a single MAC service access point (SAP) to the logical link control (LLC) lower layer. [0083] Multi-link operation (MLO) may refer to tasks such as discovery, authentication, multi-link setup, and frame exchange between two MLDs; [0084] An affiliated STA is a STA that provides link-specific lower-level MAC and PHY services within an MLD. It may be an access point (AP) STA or a non-access point (non-AP) STA).
Regarding claim(s) 11, Huang discloses wherein the identification of the recommended AP is a distinct non-collocated link identification (ID) (See ¶ abstract, The communication frame may include n multi-link elements, and each multi-link element corresponds to one collocated AP MLD. The multi-link element includes identifier information of a non-collocated AP MLD and identifier information of the collocated AP MLD, and n collocated AP MLDs are affiliated with one non-collocated AP MLD.) Reasons for combining same as claim 1.
Regarding claim(s) 12, Yoon discloses wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode the management frame in response to the collocated AP MLD affiliated with the recommended AP detecting signals above a threshold transmitted by the non-AP MLD AP (See Fig(s). 3, See ¶ 73, a network discovery operation including an active scanning process. In active scanning, a STA performing scanning transmits a probe request frame and waits for a response to the probe request frame in order to identify which AP is present around while moving to channels.)..
Regarding claim(s) 13, Yoon discloses transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry, the transceiver circuitry coupled to two or more microstrip antennas for receiving signaling in accordance with a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique (See ¶ 127, UHR PPDU is classified into various types (e.g., type related to SU transmission (performed based on UL or DL), type related to DL transmission, type related to NDP transmission, type related to DL non-MU-MIMO, type related to DL MU-MIMO).
Regarding claim(s) 14, Yoon discloses transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry, the transceiver circuitry coupled to two or more patch antennas for receiving signaling in accordance with a multiple-input multiple- output (MIMO) technique (See ¶ 127, UHR PPDU is classified into various types (e.g., type related to SU transmission (performed based on UL or DL), type related to DL transmission, type related to NDP transmission, type related to DL non-MU-MIMO, type related to DL MU-MIMO).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 9-10 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Raj Jain whose telephone number is (571) 272-3145. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th ~8 ~6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached on 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RAJ JAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
