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 (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 1-8, 11-12, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cariou (US 20220116862 A1) in view of Baek et al. (US 20240306224 A1), and further in view of Asterjadhi et al. (US 20240137860 A1). For dependent claims herein, the motivation to combine is the same as the parent claim unless otherwise noted.
Regarding claim 1,
Cariou discloses “An apparatus for an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (AP MLD), the apparatus comprising memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to” (See Fig. 1, Device 102): “encode, for transmission to a non-AP MLD, an advertisement, the advertisement indicating a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled, the first AP associated with a first link of the AP MLD” (See Fig. 5, [0222] at block 502, the method may include transmitting from an AP of an AP MLD a broadcast frame including a link disable advertisement, the link disable advertisement to advertise a link disablement of the AP for all non-AP MLDs associated with the AP. For example, the link disablement of the AP may indicate that the AP is to be unavailable for communication with all the non-AP MLDs associated with the AP).
Cariou does not explicitly disclose that the link disablement is carried in TID mapping, and a request from the non-AP MLD to the AP-MLD to enable the AP.
However, Baek discloses “traffic identification (TID)-to-link mapping indicating a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled” (See [0199] In the multi-link setup process, enabling/disabling of each link may be indicated through TID-to-Link mapping), “decode, from the non-AP MLD, a request to enable the first AP” (See [0251] the STA MLD may transmit a TID-to-Link mapping request frame, which is an action frame including a TID-to-Link mapping element including changed TID information, to the AP MLD. [0246] the operation of changing information of the TID mapped to the link may include an operation of updating the TID-to-Link mapping information of a link that is in a disabled state and converting it to an enabled state. Note: The TID-to-link mapping request may update the TID-to-link mapping information of a disabled link and convert it to an enabled state, thereby corresponding to a request to enable the previously disabled AP), “and encode, for transmission to the non-AP MLD, a response to the request to enable the first AP” (See [0208] After receiving the individually addressed TID-to-Link mapping request frame, the responding MLD may transmit an individually addressed TID-to-Link mapping response frame to the initiating MLD according to rules described below. [0209] if the responding MLD approves the TID-to-Link requested in the TID-to-Link mapping element of the received TID-to-Link mapping request frame, the responding MLD may set the status code to 0 (SUCCESS) in the TID-to-Link mapping response frame).
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 have modified the teachings of Cariou with the teachings of Baek by advertising link disablement in a TID-to-link mapping element, and the motivation to do so would have been to communicate the link disable advertisement using Baek’s standardized TID-to-link mapping, thereby improving interoperability between AP MLDs and non-AP MLDs, and also to have modified the teachings of Cariou with the teachings of Baek by processing a request from the non-AP MLD to enable a previously disabled link, and the motivation to do so would have been to improve utilization of available communication resources.
Cariou in view of Baek does not explicitly disclose that the request to enable the first AP is sent on a second link associated with a second AP.
However, Asterjadhi discloses “a request on a second link associated with a second AP, to enable the first AP” (See [0080] In an aspect, transmitting the request for the AP to transition from operating in the lower power mode to operating in the higher power mode in which a link associated with the AP is enabled for the wireless STA includes: transmitting the request on an anchor link associated with another AP of the AP MLD. The anchor link being enabled when the request is transmitted. In the context of FIG. 5, this aspect may be illustrated by the STA 512 transmitting a request on an anchor link associated with another AP of the AP MLD 525).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Cariou and Baek with the teachings of Asterjadhi, in order to maintain communication while other links are disabled, thereby supporting efficient power-saving operation and coordinated reactivation of disabled links (Asterjadhi [0028]).
Regarding claim 2,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the TID-to-link mapping indicates the first AP is disabled by indicating that no TIDs are mapped to the first AP” (See Baek [0199] In the multi-link setup process, enabling/disabling of each link may be indicated through TID-to-Link mapping. [0196] if there is no TID mapped to the link, the setup link may be defined as disabled).
Regarding claim 3,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request comprises an indication of a request for a TID to be mapped to the first link” (See Baek [0257] The STA MLD may transmit a TID-to-Link mapping request frame, which is an action frame including a TID-to-Link mapping element including link mapping information of a specific TID, to the AP MLD. Fig. 20, [0263] the link mapping presence indicator subfield includes only mapping information of TID n(s) to be changed, and the link mapping field of TID n may include only mapping change information of TID n to be applied to specific link(s)).
Regarding claim 4,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a TID-to- link mapping, the TID-to-link mapping comprising a field indicating the TID-to-link mapping is a request to change a current TID-to-link mapping” (See Baek [0251] the STA MLD may transmit a TID-to-Link mapping request frame, which is an action frame including a TID-to-Link mapping element including changed TID information, to the AP MLD. [0252] If the STA MLD requests a change in TID-to-Link mapping in the manner described above (i.e., implicitly), the TID-to-Link mapping element may be configured to include TID-to-Link mapping information to request change based on TID information mapped to current links. [0253] For example, assume that the STA MLD will change the link mapped for TID 7 from Link 3 to Link 2. FIG. 20 (a) illustrates the format of the TID-to-Link mapping element that the STA MLD transmits to the AP MLD to change the link mapped for TID 7 from link 3 to link 2).
Regarding claim 5,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a TID-to- link mapping” (See Baek [0251] the STA MLD may transmit a TID-to-Link mapping request frame, which is an action frame including a TID-to-Link mapping element including changed TID information, to the AP MLD), “and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: in response to the TID-to-link mapping being different than the advertisement TID-to-link mapping, assigning a TID to the first link” (See Baek [0255] AP MLD may confirm changes in the value of the link mapping field of TID 7 by comparing/analyzing the current TID-to-Link mapping information (i.e., mapping information shown in FIG. 19) and the mapping information shown in (a) of FIG. 20. If the change request is approved, the AP MLD can change (i.e., update) the TID-to-Link mapping information of Link 3 and Link 2 of the STA MLD). Note: if the change request is approved, the AP MLD updates TID-to-Link mapping information, thereby assigning the TID to the link).
Regarding claim 6,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request comprises a target wake time (TWT) element, the TWT element comprising a service period field, the service period field indicating a time for the first link to be active for the non-AP MLD” (See Asterjadhi [0062] If the non-AP MLD 510 intends to send frames on links that are advertised as disabled/TWT PS mode, then the STA can request the AP MLD 520 to enable or awake whichever link it intends to use. The request to transition to a higher power mode can also be achieved via action frames which may include a list of the links being requested to transition to the higher power mode, and duration of TWT SPs. [0080] the request for the AP to transition from operating in the lower power mode to operating in the higher power mode further includes a request to increase a duration of time of a SP on the link associated with the AP when the link is enabled). Note: Asterjadhi teaches including the duration of TWT SPs in the request in [0062], and in [0080] explains that the SP is associated with a duration where the link is enabled/ active, thereby indicating the time during which the first link is active.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Cariou and Baek with the teachings of Asterjadhi to include the TWT service period information to improve power efficiency by defining the duration that the enabled link remains active.
Regarding claim 7,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the TWT element is a first TWT element, and wherein the response comprises a second TWT element indicating acceptance of the time” (See Asterjadhi [0062] In an aspect, the AP MLD 520 may confirm which links are being enabled or transitioned to a higher power mode by sending a corresponding response, which may also indicate the confirmed resources (for example, BW/NSS and TWT SP).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Cariou and Baek with the teachings of Asterjadhi to include the TWT service period information to improve power efficiency by defining the duration that the enabled link remains active.
Regarding claim 8,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the request further comprises an indication of a TID-to-link mapping” (See Baek [0257] The STA MLD may transmit a TID-to-Link mapping request frame, which is an action frame including a TID-to-Link mapping element including link mapping information of a specific TID, to the AP MLD). Note: While Asterjadhi teaches the request including TWT element recited in claim 6, Baek further teaches including a TID-to-Link mapping in the request. According to applicant’s specification, para. 123, the TWT element and TID-to-Link mapping are different frames or elements.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have further included Baek’s TID-to-Link mapping in the request of the combined system, to identify the link assigned to traffic associated with a particular TID, thereby facilitating coordinated multi-link communications.
Regarding claim 11,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the response is an acknowledgement of the request” (See Baek [0208] After receiving the individually addressed TID-to-Link mapping request frame, the responding MLD may transmit an individually addressed TID-to-Link mapping response frame to the initiating MLD according to rules described below. [0209] For example, if the responding MLD approves the TID-to-Link requested in the TID-to-Link mapping element of the received TID-to-Link mapping request frame, the responding MLD may set the status code to 0 (SUCCESS) in the TID-to-Link mapping response frame).
Regarding claim 12,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-AP MLD is one of a plurality of non-AP MLDs associated with the AP MLD” (See Cariou [0187] the link disable/re-enable mechanism may be configured to provide a technical solution to allow the AP MLD to disable a link for all associated non-AP MLDs, for example, by sending a broadcasted frame advertising the link that is disabled).
Regarding claim 15, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 1. In addition, Cariou discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an access point (AP) multi- link device (MLD) (AP MLD) in (Fig. 7, [0227]), the instructions to configure the one or more processors to perform the steps of claim 1.
Regarding claim 16 and 17, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claims 2 and 3 respectively.
Regarding claim 18, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 1 from the perspective of the non-AP MLD. (See Cariou Fig. 1, Device 140).
Regarding claims 19 and 20, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claims 2 and 3 respectively from the perspective of the non-AP MLD.
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cariou (US 20220116862 A1) in view of Baek et al. (US 20240306224 A1), and further in view of Asterjadhi et al. (US 20240137860 A1), as applied to claim 6 above, and further in view of Ryu et al. (US 20240422674 A1).
Regarding claim 9,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to”, but does not explicitly disclose transmitting to the non-AP MLD at the start of the time on the first link, a beacon frame comprising a TIM element.
However, Ryu discloses “encode, for transmission to the non-AP MLD at a start of the time on the first link, a beacon frame, the beacon frame comprising a traffic indicator map (TIM) element” (See [0166] AP MLD may be configured transmit a beacon frame including a traffic indication map (TIM) element. [0167] While in the second power save mode, non-AP MLD may wake from the doze state to listen for beacon frames on the enabled links at each target beacon transmission time (TBTT) on the enabled links). Note Ryu transmitting the beacon frame at the TBTT, which is the point at which the non-AP MLD wakes on the enabled first link to begin receiving beacon information, and therefore reasonably corresponds, under BRI, to transmitting the beacon frame at the start of the time on the first link.
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 have modified the teachings of Cariou, Baek and Asterjadhi, with the teachings of Ryu, in order to coordinate beacon delivery with scheduled active period of the non-AP MLD, thereby improving communication efficiency and power management.
Regarding claim 10,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses ““The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to”, but does not explicitly disclose transmitting to the non-AP MLD at a TBTT on the first link, a beacon frame comprising a TIM element.
However, Ryu discloses “encode, for transmission to the non-AP MLD at a target beacon transmission time on the first link, a beacon frame, the beacon frame comprising a traffic indicator map (TIM) element” (See [0166] AP MLD may be configured transmit a beacon frame including a traffic indication map (TIM) element. [0167] While in the second power save mode, non-AP MLD may wake from the doze state to listen for beacon frames on the enabled links at each target beacon transmission time (TBTT) on the enabled links).
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 have modified the teachings of Cariou, Baek and Asterjadhi, with the teachings of Ryu, in order to coordinate beacon delivery with scheduled active period of the non-AP MLD, thereby improving communication efficiency and power management.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cariou (US 20220116862 A1) in view of Baek et al. (US 20240306224 A1), and further in view of Asterjadhi et al. (US 20240137860 A1), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Shafin et al. (US 20240080761 A1).
Regarding claim 13,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the request and response are part of a target wake time (TWT) negotiation” (See Asterjadhi [0062] If the non-AP MLD 510 intends to send frames on links that are advertised as disabled/TWT PS mode, then the STA can request the AP MLD 520 to enable or awake whichever link it intends to use. The request to transition to a higher power mode can also be achieved via action frames which may include a list of the links being requested to transition to the higher power mode, and duration of TWT SPs. In an aspect, the AP MLD 520 may confirm which links are being enabled or transitioned to a higher power mode by sending a corresponding response, which may also indicate the confirmed resources (for example, BW/NSS and TWT SP).
Note: Asterjadhi teaches exchanging TWT related parameters through a request and corresponding request, thereby performing TWT negotiation.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Cariou and Baek with the teachings of Asterjadhi to use TWT negotiation to improve power efficiency by defining the duration that the enabled link remains active.
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi does not explicitly disclose the TWT negotiation determines a TID to assign to the link and a time duration for the TID to be assigned to the link.
However, Shafin discloses “the TWT negotiation determining a TID to assign to link one and a time a duration for the TID to be assigned to link one” (See [0071] the non-AP MLD 320 may negotiate a TID-to-link mapping with the AP MLD 310. The TID-to-link mapping allows the AP MLD 310 and the non-AP MLD 320 to determine how frames belonging to TIDs are assigned for transmission on each setup link. See Fig. 4, [0077] The Expected Duration field may indicate the duration for which the proposed TID-to-link mapping is expected to be effective).
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 have modified the teachings of Cariou, Baek and Asterjadhi, with the teachings of Shafin, in order to coordinate traffic assignment with scheduled link activity, thereby improving power efficiency.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cariou (US 20220116862 A1) in view of Baek et al. (US 20240306224 A1), and further in view of Asterjadhi et al. (US 20240137860 A1), as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Asterjadhi et al. (US 20210007168 A1).
Regarding claim 14,
Cariou in view of Baek and Asterjadhi discloses “The apparatus of claim 1”, but does not explicitly disclose that the AP MLD is a non-collocated AP MLD.
However, Asterjadhi ‘168 discloses “wherein the AP MLD is a non-collocated AP MLD” (See abstract, method for signaling between an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) and a non-AP MLD including control information to activate or deactivate auxiliary links using an anchor link. [0030] the AP MLD includes non-collocated APs).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have employed the non-collocated AP MLD configuration taught by Asterjadhi ‘168 in the combined system of Cariou, Baek and Asterjadhi, since Asterjadhi ’168 likewise teaches link activation/ deactivation in an Ap MLD, thereby allowing the combined system to perform link activation-based operation across distributed APs while improving deployment flexibility.
Conclusion
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/SALMA AYAD/Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/KEVIN C. HARPER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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