DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, anycorrection of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground ofrejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would bethe same under either status.
Response to Amendment
The proposed reply filed on December 23rd, 2025 has been entered. Claims 1-5, 7-10, 14 and 16 have been amended. Claims 6 and 11-13 have been canceled. Claims 1-5, 7-10, 14 and 16 are pending in the application.
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, 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 14 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2022/0345243 A1) in view of Yu et al. (US 20210266054 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Noh et al. teach a method includes receiving, by a first station (STA) from a second station, an operation element including (Figs. 1 and 9, [0030, 0094] a WLAN BSS 100 may include a one AP 110 and a plurality of STAs 120. Any one of the plurality of STAs 120 may receive resource allocated for MU transmission and communicate with the AP 110. The AP 110 may deliver information regarding the resource allocation for MU transmission to any one of the plurality of STAs 120. The plurality of STAs 120 may receive/transmit, from/to the AP 110, the frames simultaneously in the WLAN BSS 100 based on the allocated resources for MU transmission. The STAs 120 receives the format of the EHT Operation element 900 from the AP 110),
Noh et al. teach a first disabled subchannel bitmap field related to at least one first subchannel that is punctured within a bandwidth (figs. 1 and 9, [0094], the format of the EHT Operation element 900 includes Element ID field 901, Length field 902, Element ID Extension filed 903, EHT Operation Information field 904 and Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905. The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 provides the static puncturing channel indication indicating a list of subchannels that are punctured within the BSS bandwidth, if present.),
Noh et al. teach and a second field related to whether the first disabled subchannel bitmap field is present in the operation element, through a beacon frame (Figs. 1 and 8-9, [0092, 0094], the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield indicates whether the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap filed 905 is present. For example, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is present if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield is 1, otherwise, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is not present. CCFS TBD TBD Disabled Indicates Set to 1 if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Subchannel whether the field is present; set to 0 otherwise. Bitmap Disabled Present Subchannel Bitmap field is present or not. wherein this element could be carried in a management frame such as a beacon frame),
Noh et al. teach receiving, by the first STA from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 1, 2B and , [0048, 0055, 0105, 0123], the STA 120 may include any number of antenna(s) 205 for MIMO communication with an AP 110. The AP 110 may want to have more control mechanism of the medium by using more scheduled access, which may allow more frequent use of OFDMA/MU-MIMO transmissions. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap as shown in Table 6. There are EHT MU PPDU and EHT TB PPDU. EHT MU PPDU carries the Punctured Channel Information in U-SIG to indicate which 20 MHz subchannels are punctured to a single user transmission and a multiple user transmission (Full (or partial) bandwidth MU-MIMO transmission or OFDMA transmission),
Noh et al. teach and transmitting, by the first STA to the second STA, beamforming feedback information based on the MIMO control field (Figs. 1, 2B, 5, [0045, 0058, ], controller/processor 240 can move data into or out of the memory 260 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the controller/processor 240 is configured to execute a plurality of applications 262, such as applications for channel sounding, including feedback computation based on a received null data packet (NDP) Announcement frame and NDP frame and transmitting the beamforming feedback report in response to a Trigger frame. the beamformed transmission is initiated with a NDP Announcement frame 503a by the beamformer 501a. After SIFS 505a interval, the NDP frame 504a is transmitted to be estimated for channel matrix by for the beamformee 502a and beamformee 502a calculates the beam matrix. After SIFS 505a interval, Compressed Beamforming/channel quality indicator (CQI) frame 506a including feedback information is sent by the beamformee 502a. NDP Announcement frame 503a contains proper signaling to help this procedure for some STAs wherein the STA ID is included in NDP Announcement frame 503a),
Noh et al. teach wherein the partial BW information subfield is based on the first disabled subchannel bitmap field (Figs. 1 and 9, [0097, 0105], Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field can reuse the first puncturing pattern defined in PHY preamble above. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap).
Regarding claim 2, Noh et al. teach wherein: the frame includes a first subfield related to whether the partial BW information subfield related to the at least one first subchannel is included in the frame (Fig. 9, [0105], first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap as shown in Table 6).
Noh et al. is teaching of an operational element including disabled subchannel bitmap field. Noh et al., however, fail to expressly disclose MIMO control field including a partial bandwidth information subfield. (Emphasis added).
Noh et al. also do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 3, wherein: whether the partial BW information subfield is included in the frame is based on the second field.
Regarding claim 1, Yu et al. teach receiving, by the first STA from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 4, 6 and 14, [0103, 0155] beamforming report may further include one or more MIMO control fields, each MIMO control field corresponds to one feedback field, and the MIMO control field is used to indicate a configuration parameter used for channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field. The MIMO control field may further include a plurality of pieces of partial bandwidth information, and the partial bandwidth information includes a resource unit start index and a resource unit end index. Each piece of partial bandwidth information corresponds to one feedback field, and the partial bandwidth information is used to indicate that channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field is channel state information of a resource unit at a specific part).
Regarding claim 3, Yu et al. teach wherein: whether the partial BW information subfield is included in the frame is based on the second field (Figs. 4, 6 and 14, [0155] the MIMO control field may further include a plurality of pieces of partial bandwidth information, and the partial bandwidth information includes a resource unit start index and a resource unit end index. Each piece of partial bandwidth information corresponds to one feedback field, and the partial bandwidth information is used to indicate that channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yu et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving, by the first STA from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield, and based on the second field. The motivation is to support an improved method for a channel state information feedback (see [0002]).
Regarding claim 14, Noh et al. teach a first station (STA) comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor coupled to the one or more transceivers; wherein the at least one processor is configured to (Fig. 2B, [0041], STA 121 includes antenna(s) 205, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 210, TX processing circuitry 215, a microphone 220, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 225. The STA 111 also includes a speaker 230, a controller/processor 240, an input/output (I/O) interface (IF) 245, a touchscreen 250, a display 255, and a memory 260. The memory 260 includes an operating system (OS) 261 and one or more applications 262),
Noh et al. teach receive, from a second STA through the at least one transceiver, an operation element including (Figs. 1 and 9, [0030, 0094] a WLAN BSS 100 may include a one AP 110 and a plurality of STAs 120. Any one of the plurality of STAs 120 may receive resource allocated for MU transmission and communicate with the AP 110. The AP 110 may deliver information regarding the resource allocation for MU transmission to any one of the plurality of STAs 120. The plurality of STAs 120 may receive/transmit, from/to the AP 110, the frames simultaneously in the WLAN BSS 100 based on the allocated resources for MU transmission. The STAs 120 receives the format of the EHT Operation element 900 from the AP 110),
Noh et al. teach a first disabled subchannel bitmap field related to at least one first subchannel that is punctured within a bandwidth (figs. 1 and 9, [0094], the format of the EHT Operation element 900 includes Element ID field 901, Length field 902, Element ID Extension filed 903, EHT Operation Information field 904 and Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905. The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 provides the static puncturing channel indication indicating a list of subchannels that are punctured within the BSS bandwidth, if present),
Noh et al. teach and a second field related to whether the first disabled subchannel bitmap field is present in the operation element, through a beacon frame (Figs. 1 and 8-9, [0092, 0094], the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield indicates whether the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap filed 905 is present. For example, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is present if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield is 1, otherwise, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is not present. CCFS TBD TBD Disabled Indicates Set to 1 if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Subchannel whether the field is present; set to 0 otherwise. Bitmap Disabled Present Subchannel Bitmap field is present or not. wherein this element could be carried in a management frame such as a beacon frame),
Noh et al. teach receive, from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 1, 2B and , [0048, 0055, 0105, 0123], the STA 120 may include any number of antenna(s) 205 for MIMO communication with an AP 110. The AP 110 may want to have more control mechanism of the medium by using more scheduled access, which may allow more frequent use of OFDMA/MU-MIMO transmissions. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap as shown in Table 6. There are EHT MU PPDU and EHT TB PPDU. EHT MU PPDU carries the Punctured Channel Information in U-SIG to indicate which 20 MHz subchannels are punctured to a single user transmission and a multiple user transmission (Full (or partial) bandwidth MU-MIMO transmission or OFDMA transmission),
Noh et al. teach and transmit, to the second STA through the at least one transceiver, beamforming feedback information based on the MIMO control field (Figs. 1, 2B, 5, [0045, 0058, ], controller/processor 240 can move data into or out of the memory 260 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the controller/processor 240 is configured to execute a plurality of applications 262, such as applications for channel sounding, including feedback computation based on a received null data packet (NDP) Announcement frame and NDP frame and transmitting the beamforming feedback report in response to a Trigger frame. the beamformed transmission is initiated with a NDP Announcement frame 503a by the beamformer 501a. After SIFS 505a interval, the NDP frame 504a is transmitted to be estimated for channel matrix by for the beamformee 502a and beamformee 502a calculates the beam matrix. After SIFS 505a interval, Compressed Beamforming/channel quality indicator (CQI) frame 506a including feedback information is sent by the beamformee 502a. NDP Announcement frame 503a contains proper signaling to help this procedure for some STAs wherein the STA ID is included in NDP Announcement frame 503a),
Noh et al. teach wherein the partial BW information subfield is based on the first disabled subchannel bitmap field (Figs. 1 and 9, [0097, 0105], Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field can reuse the first puncturing pattern defined in PHY preamble above. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap).
Noh et al. is teaching of an operational element including disabled subchannel bitmap field. Noh et al., however, fail to expressly disclose MIMO control field including a partial bandwidth information subfield. (Emphasis added).
Regarding claim 14, Yu et al. teach receive, from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 4, 6 and 14, [0103, 0155] beamforming report may further include one or more MIMO control fields, each MIMO control field corresponds to one feedback field, and the MIMO control field is used to indicate a configuration parameter used for channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field. The MIMO control field may further include a plurality of pieces of partial bandwidth information, and the partial bandwidth information includes a resource unit start index and a resource unit end index. Each piece of partial bandwidth information corresponds to one feedback field, and the partial bandwidth information is used to indicate that channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field is channel state information of a resource unit at a specific part).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yu et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving, by the first STA from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield. The motivation is to support an improved method for a channel state information feedback (see [0002]).
Regarding claim 16, Noh et al. teach a second station (STA) comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor coupled to the one or more transceivers; wherein the at least one processor is configured to (Fig. 2A, [0032], AP 110 includes multiple antennas 204 a-204 n, multiple RF transceivers 209 a-209 n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 214, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 219. The AP 110 also includes a controller/processor 224, a memory 229, and a backhaul or network interface 234),
Noh et al. teach transmit, to a first STA through the at least one transceiver, an operation element including (Figs. 1 and 9, [0030, 0094] a WLAN BSS 100 may include a one AP 110 and a plurality of STAs 120. Any one of the plurality of STAs 120 may receive resource allocated for MU transmission and communicate with the AP 110. The AP 110 may deliver information regarding the resource allocation for MU transmission to any one of the plurality of STAs 120. The plurality of STAs 120 may receive/transmit, from/to the AP 110, the frames simultaneously in the WLAN BSS 100 based on the allocated resources for MU transmission. The STAs 120 receives the format of the EHT Operation element 900 from the AP 110),
Noh et al. teach a first disabled subchannel bitmap field related to at least one first subchannel that is punctured within a bandwidth (figs. 1 and 9, [0094], the format of the EHT Operation element 900 includes Element ID field 901, Length field 902, Element ID Extension filed 903, EHT Operation Information field 904 and Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905. The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 provides the static puncturing channel indication indicating a list of subchannels that are punctured within the BSS bandwidth, if present),
Noh et al. teach and a second field related to whether the first disabled subchannel bitmap field is present in the operation element (Figs. 1 and 8-9, [0092, 0094], the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield indicates whether the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap filed 905 is present. For example, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is present if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield is 1, otherwise, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field 905 is not present. CCFS TBD TBD Disabled Indicates Set to 1 if the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Subchannel whether the field is present; set to 0 otherwise. Bitmap Disabled Present Subchannel Bitmap field is present or not. wherein this element could be carried in a management frame such as a beacon frame),
Noh et al. teach transmit, to the first STA through the at least one transceiver, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 1, 2B and , [0048, 0055, 0105, 0123], the STA 120 may include any number of antenna(s) 205 for MIMO communication with an AP 110. The AP 110 may want to have more control mechanism of the medium by using more scheduled access, which may allow more frequent use of OFDMA/MU-MIMO transmissions. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap as shown in Table 6. There are EHT MU PPDU and EHT TB PPDU. EHT MU PPDU carries the Punctured Channel Information in U-SIG to indicate which 20 MHz subchannels are punctured to a single user transmission and a multiple user transmission (Full (or partial) bandwidth MU-MIMO transmission or OFDMA transmission),
Noh et al. teach and receive, from the first STA through the at least one transceiver, beamforming feedback information based on the MIMO control field (Figs. 1, 2B, 5, [0045, 0058, ], controller/processor 240 can move data into or out of the memory 260 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the controller/processor 240 is configured to execute a plurality of applications 262, such as applications for channel sounding, including feedback computation based on a received null data packet (NDP) Announcement frame and NDP frame and transmitting the beamforming feedback report in response to a Trigger frame. the beamformed transmission is initiated with a NDP Announcement frame 503a by the beamformer 501a. After SIFS 505a interval, the NDP frame 504a is transmitted to be estimated for channel matrix by for the beamformee 502a and beamformee 502a calculates the beam matrix. After SIFS 505a interval, Compressed Beamforming/channel quality indicator (CQI) frame 506a including feedback information is sent by the beamformee 502a. NDP Announcement frame 503a contains proper signaling to help this procedure for some STAs wherein the STA ID is included in NDP Announcement frame 503a),
Noh et al. teach wherein the partial BW information subfield is based on the first disabled subchannel bitmap field (Figs. 1 and 9, [0097, 0105], Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field can reuse the first puncturing pattern defined in PHY preamble above. The first puncturing pattern could reuse the one defined in EHT NDP Announcement frame wherein the one is 9 bit of partial BW Info subfield consisting of B0 to inform whether it is 20 MHz or 40 MHz resolution for following each bit and B1 to B8 to inform the feedback bitmap).
Noh et al. is teaching of an operational element including disabled subchannel bitmap field. Noh et al., however, fail to expressly disclose MIMO control field including a partial bandwidth information subfield. (Emphasis added).
Regarding claim 16, Yu et al. teach transmit, to the first STA through the at least one transceiver, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield (Figs. 4, 6 and 14, [0103, 0155] beamforming report may further include one or more MIMO control fields, each MIMO control field corresponds to one feedback field, and the MIMO control field is used to indicate a configuration parameter used for channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field. The MIMO control field may further include a plurality of pieces of partial bandwidth information, and the partial bandwidth information includes a resource unit start index and a resource unit end index. Each piece of partial bandwidth information corresponds to one feedback field, and the partial bandwidth information is used to indicate that channel state information included in the corresponding feedback field is channel state information of a resource unit at a specific part).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Yu et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of receiving, by the first STA from the second STA, a frame including a multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) control field including a partial bandwidth (BW) information subfield. The motivation is to support an improved method for a channel state information feedback (see [0002]).
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2022/0345243 A1) in view of Yu et al. (US 20210266054 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (US 2021/0105667 A1).
Noh et al. and Yu et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraphs 6 above. Noh et al. and Yu et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 4, wherein: the first subfield is set on at least one bit among the 15th bit (B 14) to 17th bit (B 16) or the 38th bit (B37) to 40th bit (B39) of the MIMO control field.
Regarding claim 4, Li et al. teach wherein: the first subfield is set on at least one bit among the 15th bit (B 14) to 17th bit (B 16) or the 38th bit (B37) to 40th bit (B39) of the MIMO control field (Fig. 3-3, [0010, 0131-0132] a preamble puncture mode includes a plurality of modes. Because each of the at least three bits corresponds to at least one secondary subchannel, the plurality of modes included in the preamble puncture mode can be indicated to the first device. A CTS-A frame is a frame that carries a new type of A-Control field. The new type of A-Control field includes a bitmap, and each bit corresponds to one 20 MHz subchannel. Because the new type of A-Control field is introduced in this implementation, a size of the bitmap may be randomly extended. The CTS-A frame is a new type of frame. The new type of frame includes a bitmap, and each bit corresponds to one 20 MHz subchannel. Because the new type of frame is introduced in this implementation, a size of the bitmap may be randomly extended. Therefore, the size of the bitmap may be extended to indicate a bandwidth higher than 160 MHz. For example, when a maximum communication bandwidth is 320 MHz, a 16-bit bitmap may be used, where each bit corresponds to one 20 MHz subchannel. Because the primary 20 MHz subchannel needs to be used, optionally, a bit corresponding to the primary 20 MHz subchannel may be set as a reserved bit or a 15-bit bitmap is used).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. with Yu et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Li et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of indicating the fourth information is set on at least one bit among the 15th bit (B 14) to 17th bit (B16) or the 38th bit (B37) to 40th bit (B39) of the control field. The motivation is to support an improved method for sending a new bandwidth mode to a receive end (see [0002]).
Claim(s) 7 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2022/0345243 A1) in view of Yu et al. (US 20210266054 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kwon et al. (US 2021/0336752 A1).
Noh et al. and Yu et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraph 6 above. Fujimori and Qi et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 7, wherein: the first disabled subchannel bitmap field consists of 16 bits, and the partial BW information subfield consists of 9 bits; regarding claim 9, wherein: the first disabled subchannel bitmap present field of the operation element is set equal to the second subfield of the MIMO control field.
Regarding claim 7, Kwon et al. teach wherein: the first disabled subchannel bitmap field consists of 16 bits, and the partial BW information subfield consists of 9 bits (Fig. 1, [0098-0099, 0102] in some embodiments, NDP packets used for signaling may support more than one hole transmission (similar to OFDMA transmissions) for punctured information signaling. In some embodiments, punctured information signaling may be performed according to one of three techniques. According to a first technique, a Universal-Signal field (U-SIG) and/or an EHT-Signal field (EHT-SIG) in an NDP packet may be similar to that of an OFDMA mode. In some embodiments, the first technique may involve a puncturing subfield in an NDP using the same format as an uncompressed OFDMA mode. In some embodiments, the first technique may involve omitting an RU Allocation field in EHT-SIG as a receiver (e.g., client or STA) will know how to combine content channels based on puncturing information in U-SIG. In some embodiments, the first technique may involve the NDP transmission being indicated in U-SIG via (1) an unused entry for PPDU+EHT-SIG compression/format, or (2) EHT-Modulation and Coding Scheme (EHT-MCS) 0 and number of EHT-SIG symbol=1. According to a second technique, channel puncturing indication may be done in an NDPA using a special Association Identifier (AID). In some embodiments, the second technique may be similar to a High-Efficiency (HE) NDPA, except that the number of puncturing bits (e.g., “disallowed subchannel bitmap”) may be extended from 8-bits to 16-bits. According to a third technique, the first technique and the second technique may be combined such that channel puncturing information may be signaled via both an NDPA and an NDP packet (see fig. 12). In some embodiments, a partial bandwidth feedback request may use 9-bits with a feedback resolution bit and an 8-bit bitmap, without the primary/secondary bit. Fig. 13 depicts fields of the HE NDPA that may be used by a beamformer (e.g., an AP) for sounding procedures for channel status information identification when the HE NDPA is aimed at more than one client (e.g., multiple STAs). With reference to fig. 13, HE NDPA 1200 includes a Frame Control field 1202 (2 octets), a Duration field 1204 (2 octets), a Receiving Address (RA) field 1206 (6 octets), a Transmission Address (TA) field 1208 (6 octets), a Sounding Dialog Token field 1210 (1 octet), a first per-STA Info field (shown as “STA Info 1”) 1212 (4 octets), a subsequent per-STA Info field (shown as “STA Info n”) 1214 (4 octets), and a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) field 1216 (4 octets). In such an embodiment, the Sounding Dialog Token field 1210 may include three subfields, implemented as Reserved 1210-1 (1-bit), VHT/HE 1210-2 (1-bit), and Sounding Dialog Token Number 1210-3 (6-bits). Additionally, in such an embodiment, the first per-STA Info field (shown as “STA Info 1”) 1212 may include six subfields, implemented as AID11 1212-1 (11-bits), Partial Bandwidth Info 1212-2 (9-bits), Feedback type+Ng 1212-3 (2-bits), Disambiguation bit 1212-4 (1-bit), Codebook size 1212-5 (1-bit), and Number of columns (Nc) 1212-6 (3-bits)).
Regarding claim 9, Kwon et al. teach wherein: the first disabled subchannel bitmap present field of the operation element is set equal to the second subfield of the MIMO control field (Fig. 1, [0098] an embodiment, partial bandwidth feedback request signaling of the primary 160 MHz segment and the secondary 160 MHz segment may be performed using 10-bits. As an example, the first 1-bit may be a resolution bit indicating the feedback request resolution of 242-tone RU or 484-tone RU, the second 8-bits may be a bitmap indicating each of the possible RU combinations, and the third 1-bit may be a primary/secondary bit indicating whether feedback is required from the primary 160 MHz segment or the secondary 160 MHz segment. In such an example, a primary/secondary bit of “0” may signal that a feedback report may be required from the primary 160 MHz segment, and a primary/secondary bit of “1” may signal that the feedback report may be required from the secondary 160 MHz segment. For example, when a resolution bit is set to 484, then the segment bit indication becomes irrelevant. In such an example, a resolution bit value of one and a segment bit value of zero can represent a 484-sized resolution, while a resolution bit value of one and a segment bit value of one can be reserved. In some embodiments, ordering of the 10-bits can be changed, for example, bit one may be a puncturing resolution, bit two may be a 160 MHz segment index, and bits three through ten may be an 8-bit puncturing pattern. In some embodiments, for an aggregated bandwidth greater than 160 MHz, 8-bits and a resolution bit may be used to indicate each of the possible combinations for an aggregation of 484-sized RUs, and such that an aggregation of more than two RUs may be considered. In some embodiments, a partial bandwidth feedback request may use 9-bits with a feedback resolution bit and an 8-bit bitmap, without the primary/secondary bit. When a resolution bit is set to 0, indicating resolution of 242-tone RU, the request can only be applied to up to 160 MHz bandwidth sounding. If the resolution bit is set to 1, indicating resolution of 484-tone RU, the request can be used for 320 MHz bandwidth sounding).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. with Yu et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Kwon et al. in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of using the first disabled subchannel bitmap field consists of 16 bits, and the partial BW information subfield consists of 9 bits, and wherein: the first disabled subchannel bitmap present field of the operation element is set equal to the second subfield of the MIMO control field. The motivation is to support an improved method for operating an access point using feedback subcarrier indices for a bandwidth of up to 320 MHz to a client (see [0003]).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noh et al. (US 2022/0345243 A1) in view of Yu et al. (US 20210266054 A1) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (US 2021/0153210 A1) (Li’210 hereinafter).
Noh et al. and Yu et al. disclose the claimed limitations as described in paragraphs 6 above. Noh et al. and Yu et al. do not expressly disclose the following features: regarding claim 10, wherein: the operating element includes a second field related to whether indication of at least one second subchannel that is punctured within the bandwidth different from the at least one first subchannel is supported.
Regarding claim 10, Li’210 teach wherein: the operating element includes a second field related to whether indication of at least one second subchannel that is punctured within the bandwidth different from the at least one first subchannel is supported (Figs 6-7, [0125-0126], a bitmap for preamble puncture field, a channel bandwidth field, a third channel center frequency segment field, and a fourth channel center frequency segment field are in a same operation element field, and the bitmap for preamble puncture field is in an operation element field different from an operation element field that the first channel center frequency segment field and the second channel center frequency segment field are in. Alternatively, FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure of another first frame according to an embodiment of this application. A bitmap for preamble puncture field, a channel bandwidth field, a first channel center frequency segment field, a second channel center frequency segment field, a third channel center frequency segment field, and a fourth channel center frequency segment field are in a same operation element field).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Noh et al. with Yu et al. by incorporating the features as taught by Li’210 in order to provide a more effective and efficient system that is capable of having operating element includes a second field related to whether indication of at least one second subchannel that is punctured within the bandwidth different from the at least one first subchannel is supported. The motivation is to support an improved method for providing a bandwidth information indication (see [0006]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 8 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-4, 7, 9-10, 14 and 16 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.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 SYED M BOKHARI whose telephone number is (571)270-3115. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday.
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/SYED M BOKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2473 2/25/2026
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473