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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 submission filed on 07/22/2026 has been entered.
This office action is in response to the amendment filed 07/22/2026.
Claims 21-26, 28-29, 30-35, 37- 38 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 21-26, 28-29, 30-35, 37- 38 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.
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.
Claim(s) 21, 22-26, 28-29, 30, 31-35, 37-38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over PARK et al. ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) in view of PARK et al. ( US 20190289576, Provisional Application No. 62413996 ), and further in view of Trainin et al. ( US 20170202011 , hereinafter, Trainin’s 011 ) .
Regarding to the claim 21, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) teaches a method for use in a first station (STA), the method comprising:
transmitting [ by a first station ] , during a polling period of an access point (AP), a service period request (SRP) frame including indication of support for transmission in multiple channel (as shown in FIGS. 18 to 20, the PCP/AP or separate STA and the at least one STA can transmit and receive the poll frame and SPR frame through the primary channel of the system. Further, time resources used by the at least one STA to receive and transmit the poll frame and SPR frame may be different from those used by other STAs to receive and transmit poll frames and SPR frames) [see Paragraph 0180 ] including indication of support for transmission in multiple channel (by newly defining a subfield for indicating which type of beam forming is performed, the PCP/AP or separate STA may control beamforming training for the SU-MIMO, MU-MIMO, channel bonding, channel aggregation)[see Paragraph 0229]
( [0177] The PP means a period in which a PCP/AP or separate STA performs polling on whether dynamic allocation is present during the DTI by transmitting a poll frame to at least one STA and then receive a service period request (SPR) frame from the at least one STA. In this case, as shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, the PCP/AP or separate STA may transmit different poll frames to the one or more STAs and then receive SPR frames in response to the poll frames from the one or more STAs ) [also see Figure 19 and Paragraphs 0177 & 0183 & 0185 ]
[ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ];
receiving, from the access point, a grant frame (allocated channel during the DTI) indicating to the first STA (STA A ) a first channel for data transmission (CH1) to a second STA (STA B ) , and indicating to a third STA (STA C) a second channel (CH2, CH 3) for data transmission by the third STA (STA C) to a fourth STA (STA D ) [see Figure 16 and Paragraph 0148 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] ;
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However, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) does not explicitly teach transmitting data to the second STA based on the received grant frame.
( US 20190289576, Provisional Application No. 62413996 ), from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches transmitting data to the second STA based on the received grant frame [see Figure 13 and Paragraph 0126 ] [see page 11 of Provisional Application No. 62413996 ].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the system of US 20190007964 in view of US 20190289576 because US 20190289576 suggests that To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, in an aspect of the present invention, provided herein is an operating method for an access point (AP) in wireless local area network (WLAN) system, including transmitting a first grant frame for dynamically allocating a first allocation period within a data transmission interval (DTI) to a first station (STA) during the DTI, wherein the first grant frame may include dynamic allocation information for allocating a plurality of channels including a first primary channel or at least one channel except the first primary channel in the first allocation period.
However, US 20190007964 and US 20190289576 do not explicitly teach the SPR frame including an indication that the first STA supports channel bonding or channel aggregation.
US 20170202011, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches a service period request (SPR) frame responsive to a poll frame and requesting communication with a second STA (DESTINATION STA, STA B ), the SPR frame including an indication that the first STA supports channel bonding (channel bonding) [see Paragraph 0075 and Figure 6 and Figure 7 ] or channel aggregation [see Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ]
The grant frame [see the Figure 7] further indicating whether channel bonding [see Paragraph 0075] or channel aggregation is to be used by the STA A for transmission on the first channel [see Figure 7 and Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ] ; and
transmitting data to second STA (Grant Frame received by STA B) using the indicated channel bonding [see Paragraph 0075] or channel aggregation based on the received grant frame [see Figure 7] [also see Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system of (US 20190007964 and US 20190289576), and further in view of US 20170202011 because US 20170202011 suggests that to overcome limitations in communication speed that the WLAN faces, the recent technical standards have introduced a system that increases the speed, reliability, and coverage of a wireless network. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard has introduced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) that is implemented using multiple antennas at both a transmitter and a receiver in order to support High Throughput (HT) at a data processing rate of up to 540 Mbps, minimize transmission errors, and optimize data rates.
Regarding to the claim 22, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the transmitting data to the second STA occurs while the third STA transmits data to the fourth STA [see Figure 19 & Figure 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 23, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the transmission to the second STA uses multiple user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) resources
([0228] As another embodiment, the PCP/AP or separate STA can control beamforming training for FDMA, SU-MIMO, MU-MIMO, channel bonding, channel aggregation, and the like by modifying a beamforming control field or configuring a new EDMG beamforming control field
[0229] As a further embodiment, the PCP/AP or separate STA may set a ‘size of a total number of sectors’ subfield to be equal to or greater than 7 bits by modifying the beamforming control field or configuring the new EDMG beamforming control field. In addition, the PCP/AP or separate STA may modify a ‘number of Rx DMG antennas’ subfield as an ‘Rx chain ID’ field or newly add the ‘Rx chain ID’ field while maintaining the ‘number of Rx DMG antennas’ subfield. In addition, by newly defining a subfield for indicating which type of beam forming is performed, the PCP/AP or separate STA may control beamforming training for the SU-MIMO, MU-MIMO, channel bonding, channel aggregation )
Regarding to the claim 24, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the first STA transmits the data to the second STA on a first channel and the third STA transmits to the fourth STA on a second channel (wherein the first STA transmits the data to the second STA on a first channel and the third STA transmits to the fourth STA on a second channel) [see Figures 19 & 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 25, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the first STA and the second STA are an enhanced directional multi-gigabyte (EDMG) STAs and the grant frame is an enhanced grant frame ( [0112] For example, when at least one channel except the primary channel supported by the system is allocated to a specific STA, the PCP/AP may provide information indicating a channel that can be used as the primary channel by transmitting the management frame including the EDMG operation element to the specific STA ) [see Figures 19 & 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 26, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the enhanced grant frame indicates a channel on which the first STA can transmit the data to the second STA (wherein the enhanced grant frame indicates a channel on which the first STA can transmit the data to the second STA) [see Figure 19 and Figure 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 28, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the SPR frame includes a request to communicate with the second STA ( wherein the SPR frame includes a request to communicate with the second STA ) [see Figure 19 & Figure 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 29, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) further teaches wherein the third STA has made a request to communicate with the fourth STA during the SPR frame
( wherein the third STA has made a request to communicate with the fourth STA during the SPR frame ) [see Figure 19 & Figure 16 and Paragraphs 0148 & 0177 & 0185 & 0183 & 0228 & 0229 ] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ] [ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ].
Regarding to the claim 30, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) teaches a first station (STA), the first STA comprising:
A transmitter configured to transmit [ by a first station ] , during a polling period of an access point (AP), a service period request (SRP) frame including indication of support for transmission in multiple channel (as shown in FIGS. 18 to 20, the PCP/AP or separate STA and the at least one STA can transmit and receive the poll frame and SPR frame through the primary channel of the system. Further, time resources used by the at least one STA to receive and transmit the poll frame and SPR frame may be different from those used by other STAs to receive and transmit poll frames and SPR frames) [see Paragraph 0180 ] including indication of support for transmission in multiple channel (by newly defining a subfield for indicating which type of beam forming is performed, the PCP/AP or separate STA may control beamforming training for the SU-MIMO, MU-MIMO, channel bonding, channel aggregation)[see Paragraph 0229]
( [0177] The PP means a period in which a PCP/AP or separate STA performs polling on whether dynamic allocation is present during the DTI by transmitting a poll frame to at least one STA and then receive a service period request (SPR) frame from the at least one STA. In this case, as shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, the PCP/AP or separate STA may transmit different poll frames to the one or more STAs and then receive SPR frames in response to the poll frames from the one or more STAs ) [also see Figure 19 and Paragraphs 0177 & 0183 & 0185 ]
[ see Page 21 of the Provisional Application No. 62364330] [see Page 14 of the Provisional Application No. 62277480 ];
A receiver configured to receive, from the access point, a grant frame (allocated channel during the DTI) indicating to the first STA (STA A ) a first channel for data transmission (CH1) to a second STA (STA B ) , and indicating to a third STA (STA C) a second channel (CH2, CH 3) for data transmission by the third STA (STA C) to a fourth STA (STA D ) ;
However, ( US 20190007964, Provisional Application No. 62364330, Provisional Application No. 62277480 ) does not explicitly teach the transmitter further configured to transmit data to the second STA based on the received grant frame.
( US 20190289576, Provisional Application No. 62413996 ), from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches the transmitter further configured to transmit data to the second STA based on the received grant frame [see Figure 13 and Paragraph 0126 ] [see page 11 of Provisional Application No. 62413996 ].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the system of US 20190007964 in view of US 20190289576 because US 20190289576 suggests that To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, in an aspect of the present invention, provided herein is an operating method for an access point (AP) in wireless local area network (WLAN) system, including transmitting a first grant frame for dynamically allocating a first allocation period within a data transmission interval (DTI) to a first station (STA) during the DTI, wherein the first grant frame may include dynamic allocation information for allocating a plurality of channels including a first primary channel or at least one channel except the first primary channel in the first allocation period.
However, US 20190007964 and US 20190289576 do not explicitly teach the SPR frame including an indication that the first STA supports channel bonding or channel aggregation.
US 20170202011, from the same or similar fields of endeavor, teaches a service period request (SPR) frame responsive to a poll frame and requesting communication with a second STA (DESTINATION STA, STA B ), the SPR frame including an indication that the first STA supports channel bonding (channel bonding) [see Paragraph 0075 and Figure 6 and Figure 7 ] or channel aggregation [see Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ]
The grant frame [see the Figure 7] further indicating whether channel bonding [see Paragraph 0075] or channel aggregation is to be used by the STA A for transmission on the first channel [see Figure 7 and Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ] ; and
transmitting data to second STA (Grant Frame received by STA B) using the indicated channel bonding [see Paragraph 0075] or channel aggregation based on the received grant frame [see Figure 7] [also see Paragraphs 0075 & 0076 0079 & 0080 ].
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention to modify the combined system of (US 20190007964 and US 20190289576), and further in view of US 20170202011 because US 20170202011 suggests that to overcome limitations in communication speed that the WLAN faces, the recent technical standards have introduced a system that increases the speed, reliability, and coverage of a wireless network. For example, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard has introduced Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) that is implemented using multiple antennas at both a transmitter and a receiver in order to support High Throughput (HT) at a data processing rate of up to 540 Mbps, minimize transmission errors, and optimize data rates.
Regarding to the claim 31, claim 31 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 22 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 32, claim 32 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 23 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 33, claim 33 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 24 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 34, claim 34 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 25 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 35, claim 35 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 26 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 37, claim 37 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 28 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Regarding to the claim 38, claim 38 is rejected the same ground, or for the same reasons as claim 29 above, because both claims have same claim limitations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG T HO whose telephone number is (571)272-3133. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30-4:00.
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/CHUONG T HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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