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 .
Amendments to the Claims:
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/30/2026 has been entered.
Priority
This applicant claims priority of GB2016655.9 which filed 10/20/2020 and GB2113691.6 which filed 09/24/2021. The amended claims which filed on 3/30/2026, is only supported by GB2113691.6. Therefore, the filing date of this application is 09/24/2021.
Response to Amendment
This action is in response to the amendment filed on 12/15/2025. Claims 1-3, 5-6, 9, 15, 17, 19, 21 have been canceled and claims 4, 7-8, 10-16, 18, 20, 22-39 are pending in the application.
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) 4, 7-8, 10-16, 18, 20, 22-23, 27-28 and 32-36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] in view of Hu [US 2022/0330149 which claims priority of Provisional 63/173064 or 2024/0098647 which claims priority of Provisional 63/165474].
As claims 4, 20, 22 and 32-34, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses a method for wireless communications comprising, at a station [Fig 1, Ref 114]: receiving, from the an access point (AP) [Fig 1, Ref 104], a management frame announcing a Target Wake Time (TWT) schedule information by containing a broadcast TWT element in the management frame [Fig 8, Ref 805 discloses Ref 114 receives announcing a Target Wake Time (TWT) schedule information by containing a broadcast TWT element in the management frame, Fig 2, Par. 0054-0055, 0075]; receiving, from the AP, a trigger frame allocating a resource unit (RU) within the during a TWT service period indicated by the broadcast TWT element contained in the management frame [Fig 8, Ref 815 discloses Ref 114 receives a trigger frame during TWT SP indicated in the broadcast TWT element contained in the management frame]; and transmitting the a frame during a the TWT service period in response to the trigger frame [Fig 8, Ref 820, 825 discloses Ref 114 transmits a frame during a the TWT service period in response to the triggered frame], wherein the broadcast TWT element includes a broadcast TWT Recommendation field configured to set a value to 4, the value 4 indicating that the station prioritizes a transmission of latency sensitive traffic during the TWT service period in priority a type of traffic specified during the setup of the TWT service period [Fig 2, Ref TWT flow identifier “a broadcast TWT Recommendation field” set to a value 4 which indicates that the station prioritizes a transmission of latency sensitive traffic such as video during the TWT service period in priority a type of traffic specified during the setup of the TWT service period, Par. 0068]. However, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] fails to disclose negotiating with an access point (AP) to become a member of a broadcast Target Wake Time (TWT), wherein the station and the AP exchange a TWT element including traffic identifiers (TIDs) to define latency sensitive traffic and wherein the broadcast TWT element includes a broadcast TWT Recommendation field configured to set a value to 4, the value 4 indicating that the station prioritizes a transmission of latency sensitive traffic as defined by the TIDs of the TWT element exchanged during the negotiation, during the TWT service period. In the same field of endeavor, Hu [US 2022/0330149 or US 2024/0098647] discloses negotiating with an access point (AP) to become a member of a broadcast Target Wake Time (TWT) [‘149 discloses Par. 0042, 0058 discloses the devices negotiates to become a member of broadcast TWT, ‘647 at Par. 0039, 0053-0055], wherein the station and the AP exchange a TWT element including traffic identifiers (TIDs) to define latency sensitive traffic [‘149 discloses at Par. 0058-0059 discloses TIDs is exchanged via TWT element to define latency, ‘647 discloses at Par. 0053-0055] and wherein the broadcast TWT element includes a broadcast TWT Recommendation field configured to set a value to 4, the value 4 indicating that the station prioritizes a transmission of latency sensitive traffic as defined by the TIDs of the TWT element exchanged during the negotiation, during the TWT service period [‘149 discloses at Par. 0069, ‘647 discloses at Par. 0055].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to apply a method and system for negotiating to become a member of broadcast TWT and exchange a TWT element including traffic identifiers (TIDs) to define latency sensitive traffic as disclosed by Hu into the teaching of Asterjadhi. The motivation would have been to reduce overhead.
As claim 7, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the trigger frame reserves a transmission opportunity, TXOP, overlapping or encompassing the TWT service period [Par. 0051, 0120 discloses trigger frame reserved “TXOP” overlapping or encompassing TWT service period “wake up duration” for uplink data].
As claim 8, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the latency sensitive traffic is low latency, LL, traffic [Par. 0068 discloses video traffic].
As claim 10, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses wherein a frame comprising the latency sensitive traffic is transmitted in priority during the TWT service period [Par. 0068, video frame], and wherein a frame comprising at least one of the following types of traffic: low-latency traffic not specified during a setup of the TWT service period, a traffic of which traffic type corresponding to a preferred access category, AC, indicated in the trigger frame [Par. 0068, only for video frame]; or a traffic of which traffic type corresponding to any AC, is further transmitted during the TWT service period.
As claim 11, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses contending for access to a communication channel in the TWT service period in order to transmit the a frame [Par. 0184 discloses when AP allows for the frame to transmit then STA contends for the right to transmit].
As claim 12, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the contending uses an enhanced distributed channel access, EDCA, mechanism based on EDCA parameters [Par. 0134 discloses contend using EDCA].
As claim 13, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the EDCA parameters are set to first values, different from second values that are used for contending for access outside the service period [Par. 0082 discloses for transmitting outside TWT service
period a different ADCA parameters used for contending between the station
outside TWT service period].
As claim 14, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the management frame announcing the TWT schedule information includes a field that specifies a type of traffic to be used with priority during the TWT service period [Par. 0068 discloses management frame includes flow type for indicating type of traffic will be exchanged during TWT service period for flow ID traffic].
As claim 15, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the management frame announcing the TWT schedule information includes timing information identifying the TWT service period [Fig. 2 and Par. 0051 discloses TWT duration].
As claim 16, 27 and 35, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the management frame announcing the TWT schedule information service period, such as a beacon frame or a probe response frame [Par. 0054].
As claim 18, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the TWT service period is a broadcast TWT advertised by the AP [Par. 0049].
As claims 23, 28 and 36, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] discloses the TWT schedule information includes information of the TWT service period [Par. 0049-0051].
Claim(s) 24-26, 29-31 and 37-39 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] and Hu [US 2022/0330149 which claims priority of Provisional 63/173064 or 2024/0098647 which claims priority of Provisional 63/165474] as applied to claims 4, 20, 32 and 34 above, and further in view of Cavalcanti [US 2021/0022154].
As claims 24, 29 and 37, Asterjadhi [US 2016/0219522] and Hu [US 2022/0330149 which claims priority of Provisional 63/173064 or 2024/0098647 which claims priority of Provisional 63/165474] fail to fully disclose what Cavalcanti [US 2021/0022154] discloses the broadcast TWT Recommendation field is used to recommend stations to send a predetermined frame [Par. 0187 discloses broadcast TWT flow], and wherein value 3 in the broadcast TWT Recommendation indicates no constraints on the frames with certain exception, as a recommendation [Par. 0187].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to apply a method and system for using TWT flow ID as a recommendation as disclosed by Cavalcanti into the teaching of Asterjadhi and Hu ‘647 and ‘149. The motivation would have been to maintain the quality of signal.
As claims 25, 30 and 38, Cavalcanti [US 2021/0022154] discloses the certain exception includes transmission of a TIM frame by the AP [Par. 0187 discloses TIM ].
As claims 26, 31 and 39, Cavalcanti [US 2021/0022154] discloses value 1 in the broadcast TWT Recommendation field indicates no constraints, and value 2 in the broadcast TWT Recommendation field indicates PS-Poll, QoS Null, BQR or BSRs frames, as the recommendation [Par. 0187].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN HIEU D NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3159. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
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/STEVEN HIEU D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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