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 .
DETAILED ACTION
In the amendment filed January 21, 2026, claims 1 -3,7- 9, and 15 – 17 have been amended, claims 1-20 are currently pending for examination.
Response to Arguments
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 applicant’s arguments, see page 10 paragraphs 2 - page 17, filed January 21, 2026, with respect to claims 1-20 have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 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.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Hence a new ground of rejection is further made in view of Lu et al. (US Pub. No.: 2024/0314871). A second new ground of rejection is also presented in view of Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2024/0163948).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EHT (IEEE - Extremely high throughput (EHT) MAC specification 35.1, IEEE Draft; TGbe_Cl_35, 2022-07-25, IEEE-SA), and further in view of Lu et al. (US Pub. No.: 2024/0314871).
As per claim 1, EHT disclose A method (see section 35. 3 .10 and section 35. 3 .11 and section
35. 3 .19), comprising:
establishing, by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), a plurality of links, the plurality of links comprising a primary link and a non-primary link that constitute a non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) link pair (see section 35. 3 .10 and section 35. 3 .11 and section 35.3.19 NSTR mobile AP MLD operation " .. An NSTR mobile AP MLD shall be an AP MLD .. /establishing NSTR"); and
transmitting, by an AP affiliated with the AP MLD, a beacon frame with an indication on whether or not the AP or a reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair (see section 35.3.10 and section 35.3.11 and section 35.3.19, NSTR mobile AP MLD operation " .. An NSTR mobile AP MLD shall designate one link of an NSTR link pair as the primary link. The NSTR mobile AP MLD shall schedule for transmissions of Beacon and Probe Response frames and group addressed Data frames only on the primary link. The other link of the NSTR link pair is the nonprimary link .. /transmitting a beacon frame").
EHT however does not explicitly disclose wherein the indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD.
Lu however disclose wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD (see Fig.12, Fig.13, para. 0158-0162, the first frame include a NSTR Mobile AP MLD Operation Support subfield for indicating support for the NSTR Mobile AP MLD operation. This subfield is contained in the Common Info field of the Basic Multi-Link element, as shown in FIG. 12, which illustrates addition of the NSTR Mobile AP MLD Operation Support subfield in the MLD Capabilities subfield in the Common Info field of the Basic Multi-Link element of FIG. 3, the NSTR Mobile AP MLD Operation Support subfield may be set to 1 to indicate that the AP MLD supports to behave as an NSTR Mobile AP MLD; otherwise it is set to 0. See also S1310, AP1 advertises complete or partial per-link information of links belonging to the NSTR Mobile AP MLD by transmitting a Beacon frame carrying a Basic Multi-Link element with the NSTR Mobile AP MLD Operation Support subfield equal to 1 / a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD, as taught by Lu, in the system of EHT, so as to enable mechanism to discover the NSTR Mobile AP MLD and mechanism of multi-link setup between an NSTR Mobile AP MLD and a non-AP MLD which intends to be associated with the AP MLD, see Lu, paragraphs 12-14.
As per claim 2, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 1.
EHT further disclose wherein the beacon frame indicates whether or not the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair, and wherein the indication further comprises a Primary Link Indication subfield in the Common Info field indicating whether or not the AP is operating on the primary link (see section 35.3.19, NSTR mobile AP MLD operation).
As per claim 3, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 1.
EHT further disclose wherein the plurality of links comprise a first link and a second link, wherein the establishing of the plurality of links comprises establishing the first link as the primary link on a first frequency band and the second link as the non-primary link on a second frequency band different than the first frequency band, and wherein the beacon frame is transmitted on the first link (see section 35. 3 .10 and section 35. 3 .11 and section 35.3.19).
As per claim 4, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 1.
EHT further disclose wherein the beacon frame indicates whether or not the reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair, and wherein the indication comprises a Primary Link Indication in an MLD Parameters subfield in a Target Beacon Transmission Time (TBTT) Information field of a Neighbor AP Information field in a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element carried in the beacon frame indicating whether or not the reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link (see section 35.3.19.2 Discovery of an NSTR mobile AP MLD "..An AP affiliated with an NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the primary link of an NSTR link pair shall include a Reduced Neighbor Report element with the MLD Parameters subfield present in a TBTT Information field corresponding to a reported AP affiliated with the NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the nonprimary link of the NSTR link pair in a Beacon and Probe Response frames that it transmits ../using two different frequency").
As per claim 5, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 4.
EHT further disclose wherein an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame is set to a first value to indicate that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD (see section 35.3.10 and section 35.3.11 and section 35.3.19).
As per claim 6, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 4.
EHT further disclose wherein the plurality of links comprise a first link, a second link and a third link, wherein the establishing of the plurality of links comprises establishing the first link on a first frequency band, the second link as the primary link on a second frequency band different than the first frequency band, and the third link as the non-primary link on a third frequency band different than the first and second frequency bands, and wherein the beacon frame is transmitted on the first link (section 35.3.19.2 Discovery of an NSTR mobile AP MLD "..An AP affiliated with an NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the primary link of an NSTR link pair shall include a Reduced Neighbor Report element with the MLD Parameters subfield present in a TBTT Information field corresponding to a reported AP affiliated with the NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the nonprimary link of the NSTR link pair in a Beacon and Probe Response frames that it transmits ..").
As per claim 7, Independent claim 7 is the method claim from the receiver point of view, respective to claim 1, and is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 8, claim 8 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As per claim 9, claim 9 is rejected the same way as claim 3.
As per claim 10, claim 10 is rejected the same way as claim 4.
As per claim 11, claim 11 is rejected the same way as claim 5.
As per claim 12, claim 12 is rejected the same way as claim 6.
As per claim 13, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 7.
EHT further disclose wherein the identifying of the one of the plurality of links as the primary link of the NSTR link pair comprises: identifying the non-primary link of the NSTR link pair based on a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element carried in the beacon frame; transmitting a Multi-Link (ML) probe request to the AP; receiving an ML probe response from the AP; determining the primary link of the NSTR link pair by decoding an NSTR Indication Bitmap in a Per-STA Profile subelement corresponding to the non-primary link in an ML element in the ML probe response, wherein a first value of a bit in the NSTR Indication Bitmap indicates a link identification (ID) of the primary link (see section 35.3.19.2 Discovery of an NSTR mobile AP MLD).
As per claim 14, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the method of claim 7.
EHT further disclose further comprising: determining, by the non-AP STA, the NSTR link pair corresponding to the identified primary link by one or more of: the non-primary link identified in a Target Beacon Transmission Time (TBTT) Information field of a Neighbor AP Information field in a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element carried in the beacon frame corresponding to a reported AP in an event that there is only one AP affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD that is operating on the non-primary link of an NSTR link pair; an NSTR Indication Bitmap in a Per-STA Profile subelement corresponding to the primary link in a Multi-Link (ML) element in the beacon frame received from the AP affiliated with the NSTR AP MLD; and the NSTR Indication Bitmap in the Per-STA Profile subelement corresponding to the non-primary link in the ML element (see section 35.3.10 and section 35.3.11 and section 35.3.19).
As per claim 15, claim 15 is rejected the same way as claim 1. Lu further disclose An apparatus implementable in an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (see Fig.21, a wireless communication apparatus 2000, see para. 0280-0283, see also Fig.22, a wireless communication apparatus 2100, see para. 0328), comprising: a transceiver (see Fig.21, a transceiver 2230) configured to communicate wirelessly; and a processor (a processor 2210).
As per claim 16, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the apparatus of claim 15.
EHT further disclose wherein the beacon frame indicates whether or not the AP is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair, and wherein the indication comprises at least one of: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD; and a Primary Link Indication subfield in the Common Info field indicating whether or not the AP is operating on the primary link (see section 35.3.19 NSTR mobile AP MLD operation).
As per claim 17, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the apparatus of claim 16.
EHT further disclose wherein the plurality of links comprise a first link and a second link, wherein the establishing of the plurality of links comprises establishing the first link as the primary link on a first frequency band and the second link as the non-primary link on a second frequency band different than the first frequency band, and wherein the beacon frame is transmitted on the first link (see section 35. 3 .10 and section 35. 3 .11 and section 35.3.19).
As per claim 18, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the apparatus of claim 15.
EHT further disclose wherein the beacon frame indicates whether or not the reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair, and wherein the indication comprises a Primary Link Indication in an MLD Parameters subfield in a Target Beacon Transmission Time (TBTT) Information field of a Neighbor AP Information field in a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element carried in the beacon frame indicating whether or not the reported AP is operating on the primary link (see section 35.3.19.2 Discovery of an NSTR mobile AP MLD "..An AP affiliated with an NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the primary link of an NSTR link pair shall include a Reduced Neighbor Report element with the MLD Parameters subfield present in a TBTT Information field corresponding to a reported AP affiliated with the NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the nonprimary link of the NSTR link pair in a Beacon and Probe Response frames that it transmits ../using two different frequency").
As per claim 19, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the apparatus of claim 18.
EHT further disclose wherein an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame is set to a first value to indicate that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD (see section 35.3.10 and section 35.3.11 and section 35.3.19).
As per claim 20, the combination of EHT and Lu disclose the apparatus of claim 18.
EHT further disclose wherein the plurality of links comprise a first link, a second link and a third link, wherein the establishing of the plurality of links comprises establishing the first link on a first frequency band, the second link as the primary link on a second frequency band different than the first frequency band, and the third link as the non-primary link on a third frequency band different than the first and second frequency bands, and wherein the beacon frame is transmitted on the first link (section 35.3.19.2 Discovery of an NSTR mobile AP MLD "..An AP affiliated with an NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the primary link of an NSTR link pair shall include a Reduced Neighbor Report element with the MLD Parameters subfield present in a TBTT Information field corresponding to a reported AP affiliated with the NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the nonprimary link of the NSTR link pair in a Beacon and Probe Response frames that it transmits ..").
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Claims 1-2, 7-8 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ratnam (EMLSR Primary Link PDT, IEEE Draft; 11-22-0335-02-00be-emlsr-primary-link-pdt, 2022-03-09, IEEE-SA mentor), and further in view of Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2024/0163948).
As per claim 1, Ratnam disclose A method, comprising: establishing, by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), a plurality of links, the plurality of links comprising a primary link and a non-primary link that constitute a non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) link pair; and transmitting, by an AP affiliated with the AP MLD, a beacon frame with an indication on whether or not the AP or a reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair (see
section 9.4.2.312.2.3 Link Info field of the Basic Multi Link element "..An The AP affiliated with
an NSTR mobile AP MLD and that is operating on the nonprimary primary link set sets this subfield
to O in the Per-STA Profile sub element corresponding to Other AP affiliated with the same NSTR
mobile AP MLD that is operating on the nonprimary link.." and section 35.3.11 BSS parameter
critical update procedure "..The BSS Parameter Change Count subfield for the AP operating on
nonprimary link shall only be advertised on the primary link in the MLD Parameters subfield in
the TBTT Information field of the Reduced Neighbor Report element corresponding to that AP.." and
section 35.3.20 NSTR mobile AP MLD operation).
Ratnam however does not explicitly disclose wherein the indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD.
Kim however disclose wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD (see para. 0099, 0101. 0289, when an AP is an NSTR AP MLD not supporting simultaneous transmission and reception (e.g., if the AP is an NSTR mobile AP MLD or an NSTR soft AP MLD, i.e., if a mobile terminal operates as a soft AP MLD for tethering), the NSTR AP MLD may transmit a beacon frame after including, therein, information indicating that the NSTR AP MLD is an NSTR AP MLD. For example, the NSTR AP MLD is configure the value of a specific subfield {a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element} included in a beacon frame to be a particular value (e.g., “0” or “1”), and a non-AP STA MLD having received the beacon frame may recognize that the AP MLD having transmitted the beacon frame is an NSTR AP MLD. Therefore, the specific subfield for indicating that an AP MLD is an NSTR AP MLD is configured to be a value (e.g., “1” or “0”) different from the particular value when the specific subfield does not indicate an NSTR AP MLD (e.g., STR AP MLD or other AP MLDs) ,see also para. 0290-0294, 0299-0308.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD, as taught by Kim, in the system of Ratnam, so as to enable provide a wireless communication method efficiently using multiple links and a wireless communication terminal using same, see Kim, paragraphs 10-14, 21.
As per claim 2, the combination of Ratnam and Kim disclose the method of claim 1.
Ratman further disclose wherein the beacon frame indicates whether or not the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair, and wherein the indication a Primary Link Indication subfield in the Common Info field indicating whether or not the AP is operating on the primary link (see section 35.3.17.2 Multi-link device capability and operation signaling).
As per claim 8, claim 8 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As per claim 16, claim 16 is rejected the same way as claim 2.
As per claim 7, Independent claim 7 is the method claim from the receiver point of view, respective to claim 1, and is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 15, Independent claim 15 is the apparatus claim, respective to claim 1, and is rejected the same way as claim 1.
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Third Rejection:
Claims 1, 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over IEEE (Draft Standard for Information technology— Tele - communications and information exchange between systems Local and metropolitan area networks), and further in view of Kim et al. (US Pub. No.: 2024/0163948).
As per claim 1, IEEE disclose A method, comprising: establishing, by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), a plurality of links, the plurality of links comprising a primary link and a non-primary link that constitute a non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) link pair; and transmitting, by an AP affiliated with the AP MLD, a beacon frame with an indication on whether or not the AP or a reported AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD and is operating on the primary link of the NSTR link pair (see Discussion and section 9. 4 .1. 74 EML Control field and section 35.3.15. 2 Group addressed frame reception).
IEEE however does not explicitly disclose wherein the indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD.
Kim however disclose wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD (see para. 0099, 0101. 0289, when an AP is an NSTR AP MLD not supporting simultaneous transmission and reception (e.g., if the AP is an NSTR mobile AP MLD or an NSTR soft AP MLD, i.e., if a mobile terminal operates as a soft AP MLD for tethering), the NSTR AP MLD may transmit a beacon frame after including, therein, information indicating that the NSTR AP MLD is an NSTR AP MLD. For example, the NSTR AP MLD is configure the value of a specific subfield {a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element} included in a beacon frame to be a particular value (e.g., “0” or “1”), and a non-AP STA MLD having received the beacon frame may recognize that the AP MLD having transmitted the beacon frame is an NSTR AP MLD. Therefore, the specific subfield for indicating that an AP MLD is an NSTR AP MLD is configured to be a value (e.g., “1” or “0”) different from the particular value when the specific subfield does not indicate an NSTR AP MLD (e.g., STR AP MLD or other AP MLDs) ,see also para. 0290-0294, 0299-0308.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the functionality of wherein an indication comprises: an AP MLD Type Indication subfield in a Common Info field of a Multi-Link (ML) element carried in the beacon frame indicating that the AP is affiliated with an NSTR AP MLD, as taught by Kim, in the system of IEE, so as to enable provide a wireless communication method efficiently using multiple links and a wireless communication terminal using same, see Kim, paragraphs 10-14, 21.
As per claim 7, Independent claim 7 is the method claim from the receiver point of view, respective to claim 1, and is rejected the same way as claim 1.
As per claim 15, Independent claim 15 is the apparatus claim, respective to claim 1, and is rejected the same way as claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Shafin et al (US Pub. No.:2023/0254790) – “An AP MLD is typically able to simultaneously transmit and receive over all of its links. However, 802.11be standards define a special AP MLD, namely, an NSTR Mobile AP MLD, which can have NSTR link pairs. As illustrated in FIG. 3, two kinds of links are defined for an NSTR Mobile AP MLD—Primary link and non-primary link. A Beacon and Probe response frame can only be sent over the Primary link and cannot be sent over the non-primary link. Moreover, when transmitting physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) over the non-primary link, the AP affiliated with the NSTR Mobile AP MLD that is operating on the primary link or a non-AP STA affiliated with a non-AP MLD that is associated with the NSTR Mobile AP MLD and operating on the non-primary link, needs to align the PPDU with the PPDU transmitted over the primary link”.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR whose telephone number is (571)272-1335. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 7 am - 4 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ian Moore can be reached on 571-272-3085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LAKERAM JANGBAHADUR/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469