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 .
Claims 1-5, 7-20 are pending.
Claims 8-20 were previously withdrawn.
Amendments dated 11/21/2025 is/are considered and entered.
Response to Arguments
Remarks of 11/21/2025 are fully considered. They are directed to the newly introduced limitations. As a new ground of rejection is necessitated, the arguments are considered moot.
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.
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 nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cavalcanti et al. (US 2019/0007941) in view of Bharadia et al. (US 2016/0226653) and in further view of Xu et al. (US 2023/0379793).
Cavalcanti discloses:
An apparatus comprising: a first radio; a second radio; a third radio; a memory; and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory (Fig. 2, AP device having processor/memory coupled to a plurality of radios, also ¶0029 “In FIG. 2, it is to be noted that the representation of a single antenna may be interpreted to mean one or more antennas”, i.e. might be having at least 3 radios or more than as shown in Fig. 2), the processor configured to:
while transmitting first messages in a wireless fidelity (WiFi) network (¶0019-20, Wifi) using the first radio, (¶0052-53, at the AP device with ongoing downlink transmissions via a transmitting radio)
receive a first frame from a device over a receive path using the second radio ; in response to receiving the first frame, preemptively terminate transmitting the first messages using the first radio; (¶0054-0053, receive at least a Reemption Request, i.e. via a receiving radio, and based on analysis of the frame via a receiving path, preempt the ongoing downlink transmissions at the first transmitting radio)
and after terminating transmitting the first messages using the first radio, receive second messages from the device using the third radio. (¶0053-0054, 0060, after preemption of the ongoing transmission, the AP to receive the one or more TSN frames from the STA devices)
While Cavalcanti does not explicitly disclosing the receiving second messages using a third radio, however:
Bharadia, in a related field of endeavor, discloses a full duplex MIMO (¶140), discloses transmitting and receiving data using different transmitting radios and at different receiving radios (¶0043, 0140, 0129)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing time of the invention that, in Cavalcanti, the receiving second messages can be done using a third radio. This can be inferred from the following facts: Cavalcanti discloses in ¶0025 that “leverage full duplex capabilities of an AP and preemption capabilities within a wireless network to reduce uplink channel access latency for TSN-grade traffic” and ¶0030, the AP uses MIMO to implement such communication”. With full duplex implemented with MIMO, it is within grasp of one of ordinary skill in the art that the second messages can be received with another receiver in similar manner of Bharadia discussed above. This implementation, as said by Cavalcanti, advantageously leverage full duplex capabilities of an AP and preemption capabilities within a wireless network to reduce uplink channel access latency for TSN-grade traffic in ¶0025.
Cavalcanti and Bharadia disclose the terminal apparatus to receive the downlink frames transmitted by a device on a given receive path as discussed above, however they are silent on the transmission of the downlink frames or resume of transmission of the downlink frames on the path are in response to the apparatus’s instructions, i.e. instructing the device to transmit frames of a receive path, and instructing the device to send second message etc.
Xu, in a related field of endeavor, discloss in at least ¶0076-0079, that a node, prior to receiving frames on a path, to transmit a request to a transmitter to start transmitting downlink frames to be received by said node, wherein the request has instructions to transmit as well as designated path (path ID), the request can also be a request to resume transmission (correspond to the claimed “second messages) in case the transmission was temporarily paused.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing time of the invention that Cavalcanti and Bharadia’s the terminal’s receiving the downlink frames transmitted by a device on a given path by giving instructions to the transmitter in manner disclosed by Xu. This receiver-centric control method, i.e. by having the receiving device to actively manage the transmitter, allows for effect coordination, especially in the context of multi-tasking environment of Cavalcanti by preventing transmission collisions or packet loss, as the receiver only receives data when it is ready in Xu’s system.
As to claim 2:
Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia and Xu discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: while the first radio is free, receive a second frame from the device using the second radio; in response to receiving the second frame, refrain from transmitting messages using the first radio; and while refraining from transmitting messages using the first radio, receive third messages from the device using the third radio. (Claim 2 is merely directed to the same principle established in claim 1 in another iteration of preempting transmission of downlinks for other messages received via different radios. In view of Cavalcanti, Fig. 1, Fig. 6a-b, 0053-0054, 0060, Since the process disclosed in Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia can occur continuously for also other STAs (sensor A, mobile STA for example), i.e. receive new Reemption Requests, i.e. via a receiving radio, and based on analysis of the frame, preempt the ongoing downlink transmissions at the first transmitting radio to receive new uplink messages from sensors and mobile STA, thus claim 2 is obvious over the cited disclosure)
As to claim 3:
Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia and Xu discloses all limitations of claim 2, wherein the first frame and the second frame are received over the first receive path using the second radio. (¶0031 of Cavalcanti, in an embodiment, “a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert signals”, i.e. one receive path for all receiving of data)
As to claim 4:
Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia and Xu discloses all limitations of claim 2, wherein the second frame is received a second path using the second radio wherein the second receive path is different from the first receive path (Bharadia, in an embodiment, receiving data can be done at different receiving radios paths in ¶0043, 0140, 0129. See also ¶0025 of Cavalcanti, MIMO full duplex, i.e. data packages are received over different paths of the same receiver device)
As to claim 5:
Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia and Xu discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit third messages using the first radio after receiving the second messages from the device using the third radio. (See Cavalcanti ¶0057, AP is shown as entering another contention period by way of backoff 611b to gain access to the channel again in order to transmit the remaining portion 610b ”.)
As to claim 7:
Cavalcanti in view of Bharadia and Xu discloses all limitations of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to reserve multiple receive paths that can receive the first frame from the device. . (See Cavalcanti, Fig. 6b, at 610a, the AP reserve a receive path by asking mobile STA to stop transmission, thereby reserve one or more path for allowing B[Wingdings font/0xE0]AP 612 to occur, so as the AP to receive the first frame from the sensor B at the reserved path(s). Bharadia, in an embodiment, receiving data can be done at different receiving radios paths in ¶0043, 0140, 0129. See also ¶0025 of Cavalcanti, MIMO full duplex)
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2015/0109977 - A method and apparatus support carrier aggregation. The apparatus includes a first antenna configured to transmit or receive signals in both a first high frequency band and a first low frequency band and a second antenna configured to transmit or receive signals in both a second high frequency band and a second low frequency band. At least one of the first high frequency band and the second high frequency band or the first low frequency band and the second low frequency band are different frequency bands for carrier aggregation. The apparatus may also include a third antenna and a multiband filter. The third antenna may be configured to receive signals in both the first and second high frequency bands or both the first and second low frequency bands. The multiband filter may be configured to filter the signals received by the third antenna.
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 QUAN M HUA whose telephone number is (571)270-7232. The examiner can normally be reached 10:30-6:30.
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/QUAN M HUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645