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
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 04/21/2026, has been entered and carefully considered. Claim 1 is amended. Claims 1-11 are currently pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 04/21/2026 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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Regarding claim 1, claim 1 recites as “such that bits for layers of the sequence of layers higher than a lower layer of the sequence of layers at which a failure occurs are set to indicate the failure occurrence at the lower layer of the sequence of layers”, is considered indefinite. As its not clear what are sequence of layers, then labeling these layers high or low and its not clear failure occur at lower layer of the sequence of layers. Examiner reviewed the specification table 1, which clarify part of the amended limitation but claim lacks the definition of layers and the mechanism of higher than a lower layer is not clear.
Examiner reviewed specification table 1, paragraph 0044 (US 20240348490-A1) discloses the bits of AP health information IE 200 can be organized into a sequence of layers that closely match the order of operation, where a failure or some error condition/occurrence generally prevents successful operation(s) at a higher layer. Table 1 reflects this order or hierarchy. It can be appreciated, for example, that the assignment of an IP address is a “base” operation, failings of which may not allow for the performance of any subsequent operations. Moreover, taking for example, the network layer aspect of the AP health information IE 200, it can be seen that certain root cause values at the network layer level are reflected, e.g., lack of an IP address (value 001), IP Protocol Version being the third layer in the AP health information IE hierarchy/order. As another example, each of the network layer, proxy server layer, Activate, and Central layers account for “Failure at a previous layer.” That is, when a failure occurs at a lower layer, the bits for any remaining layers are set to all 1s to indicate that a failure at a lower (previous) layer has occurred. With the exception of network time protocol (NTP) time synchronization, all other failures will prevent an AP from communicating with an NMS.
Please provide more details regarding failure occurrence and bit information of carrying failure notice. An appropriate correction is required.
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.
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lo et al. (US 2024/0223439 A1) in view of Pathak et al. (US 2018/0310279 A1) and further in view of Gomes (US 2022/0188168 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Lo discloses an access point (AP) comprising: one or more processors; and a machine readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the AP to: (Fig. 3 discloses network device 500 comprises processor 406 and memory 512); determine states of operational interfaces of the AP (Fig. 4, paragraph 0111 disclose a first network device 500A detects an issue with sending telemetry data 130 to NMS 150 via a first network path (402). For example, a failure by network device 500 to send telemetry data 130 to NMS 500, or a failure by router 108B to send or receive a heartbeat message from NMS 500, may indicate that router 108B has lost connectivity with NMS 150 due to an error, such as a failed interface or path, etc. First network device 500A sends diagnostics data 140 to the second network device 500B via a second network path, such as path 112A of FIG. 1. Sending the diagnostics data to the second network device comprises: modifying a keepalive packet to include metadata specifying the diagnostics data; and sending the keepalive packet to the second network device).
Lo does not specifically discloses encode the states of the operational interfaces of the AP into an information element (IE); append the IE to a data frame to be transmitted by the AP for receipt by at least one of a neighboring AP or client device; and transmit the data frame including the IE to the at least one of the neighboring AP or the client device.
In analogous art, Pathak discloses encode the states of the operational interfaces of the AP into an information element (IE) (Fig. 3, paragraph 0065 discloses the first AP may scan a set of channels to obtain all of the channel condition information that can be observed by scanning the channels. Alternatively, or additionally, the first AP may use any combination of techniques to obtain the channel condition information, including: scanning the set of channels to detect (encoding, one or more modules of computer program instructions, encoded on a computer storage media for execution by, or to control the operation of, data processing apparatus) the channel condition information, querying at least a second AP in the network to request the channel condition information, and requesting (from the root AP or Multi-AP Controller) consolidated channel condition information regarding one or more other APs in the network. FIG. 6 includes an example data frame 620. The data frame 620 may include a preamble 622, a frame header 624, a frame body 610, and a frame check sequence (FCS) 626. The preamble 622 may include one or more bits to establish synchronization. The frame header 624 may include source and destination network addresses (such as the network address of the sending AP and receiving AP, respectively), the length of data frame, or other frame control information. The frame body 610 may be organized with a message format and may include a variety of fields or information elements 632, 636, and 638);
append the IE to a data frame to be transmitted by the AP for receipt by at least one of a neighboring AP or client device (Fig. 6, paragraph 0095-0096 disclose the frame body 610 may be organized with a message format and may include a variety of fields or information elements 632, 636, and 638. The information elements may include channel operating constraints 664 (such as minimum channel separation, potential TX power levels, considerations regarding the concurrent use of two channels, or the like). The information elements may include channel selection error information 666 indicative of a channel that cannot be used by the AP (including an identifier of the unusable channel, error/reason code, alternative channels, or the like);
and transmit the data frame including the IE to the at least one of the neighboring AP or the client device (Paragraphs 0095-0097 disclose the AP may transmit multiple messages, or may transmit a single message having a collection of the above-described fields or information elements, to describe the multiple BSSs of the AP. A message for sharing channel condition information. For example, the message may be sent from one AP (including the root AP) to another AP).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Pathak to the system of Lo to provide the first AP to determine one or more service parameters associated with the first AP. The one or more service parameters may include at least one of a rate requirement and a received signal strength indicator tolerance. The instructions may cause the first AP to include the one or more service parameters in the channel preference report message prior to transmitting the channel preference report message to the Multi-AP Controller (paragraph 0010).
The combination of Lo and Pathak do not explicitly disclose information element (IE) containing AP health information that includes the states of the operational interfaces of the AP, the AP health information being organized into a sequence of layers that match an operational order of the sequence of layers such that bits for layers of the sequence of layers higher than a lower layer of the sequence of layers at which a failure occurs are set to indicate the failure occurrence at the lower layer of the sequence of layers.
In an analogous art, Gomes discloses information element (IE) containing AP health information that includes the states of the operational interfaces of the AP, the AP health information being organized into a sequence of layers that match an operational order of the sequence of layers such that bits for layers of the sequence of layers higher than a lower layer of the sequence of layers at which a failure occurs are set to indicate the failure occurrence at the lower layer of the sequence of layers (Figs. 3C-3D, paragraphs 0070-0073, an AP command reply message, an example of which is depicted in FIG. 3C. As shown, an AP command reply message 330 includes, for instance, a header 332, a sub-header 334, and a plurality of packets 336-340. One of the packets includes a reply CPRB 336 that includes a reply to the request and may indicate an error. FIG. 3D, reply CPRB 336 includes an error indication 350. The error indication may include an error code (e.g., CPRB return_code/reason_code) to report that a customer requested command is not allowed by a defined set of command-type tags (e.g., imposed by a hypervisor or another entity. FIG. 3E, the error code is translated to a selected AP reply code (e.g., 8B Invalid Stateless Command) and stored in header 332 in a reply code field 352. This provides a central location for the error code).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Gomes to the modified system of Lo and Pathak to provide the mechanism of placing an error code in a central location to facilitate access to the error code (Paragraph 0008).
Regarding claim 2, Lo discloses the AP to determine the state of the operational interfaces of the AP further causes the AP to assess an operational state or (Fig. 3 discloses network device 500 comprises processor 406 and memory 512); determine states of operational interfaces of the AP (Fig. 4, paragraph 0111 disclose a first network device 500A detects an issue with sending telemetry data 130 to NMS 150 via a first network path (402). For example, a failure by network device 500 to send telemetry data 130 to NMS 500, or a failure by router 108B to send or receive a heartbeat message from NMS 500, may indicate that router 108B has lost connectivity with NMS 150 due to an error, such as a failed interface or path, etc. First network device 500A sends diagnostics data 140 to the second network device 500B via a second network path, such as path 112A of FIG. 1. Sending the diagnostics data to the second network device comprises: modifying a keepalive packet to include metadata specifying the diagnostics data; and sending the keepalive packet to the second network device).
Lo in combination with Pathak discloses condition of each of the operational interfaces of the AP (as disclosed above in Lo) in accordance with a hierarchy set forth in the IE (Fig. 6, paragraph 0095-0096 disclose the frame body 610 may be organized with a message format and may include a variety of fields or information elements 632, 636, and 638. The information elements may include channel operating constraints 664 (such as minimum channel separation, potential TX power levels, considerations regarding the concurrent use of two channels, or the like). The information elements may include channel selection error information 666 indicative of a channel that cannot be used by the AP (including an identifier of the unusable channel, error/reason code, alternative channels, or the like).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Pathak to the system of Lo to provide the first AP to determine one or more service parameters associated with the first AP. The one or more service parameters may include at least one of a rate requirement and a received signal strength indicator tolerance. The instructions may cause the first AP to include the one or more service parameters in the channel preference report message prior to transmitting the channel preference report message to the Multi-AP Controller (paragraph 0010).
Regarding claim 3, Lo in combination with Pathak discloses wherein the IE comprises a plurality of fields, each of the plurality of fields corresponding to one of the operational interfaces of the AP (Fig. 6, paragraph 0095-0096 discloses the frame body 610 may be organized with a message format and may include a variety of fields or information elements 632, 636, and 638. The information elements may include channel operating constraints 664 (such as minimum channel separation, potential TX power levels, considerations regarding the concurrent use of two channels, or the like). The information elements may include channel selection error information 666 indicative of a channel that cannot be used by the AP (including an identifier of the unusable channel, error/reason code, alternative channels, or the like. Lo discuss the mechanism of operational interfaces of the AP).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Pathak to the system of Lo to provide the first AP to determine one or more service parameters associated with the first AP. The one or more service parameters may include at least one of a rate requirement and a received signal strength indicator tolerance. The instructions may cause the first AP to include the one or more service parameters in the channel preference report message prior to transmitting the channel preference report message to the Multi-AP Controller (paragraph 0010).
Regarding claim 4, Lo in combination with Pathak discloses wherein each of the plurality of fields is populated with a number of bits, each of the bits being associated with a value characterizing the health of the operational interfaces (Paragraph 0095 discloses data frame 620. The data frame 620 may include a preamble 622, a frame header 624, a frame body 610, and a frame check sequence (FCS) 626. The preamble 622 may include one or more bits to establish synchronization. The frame header 624 may include source and destination network addresses (such as the network address of the sending AP and receiving AP, respectively), the length of data frame, or other frame control information. The frame body 610 may be organized with a message format and may include a variety of fields or information elements 632, 636, and 638. The information elements may include channel operating constraints 664 (such as minimum channel separation, potential TX power levels, considerations regarding the concurrent use of two channels, or the like). The information elements may include channel selection error information 666 indicative of a channel that cannot be used by the AP (including an identifier of the unusable channel, error/reason code, alternative channels, or the like). Fig. 7, paragraphs 0098-0104 disclose message formats are provided as non-limiting examples for the purpose of explaining different types of information that may be included in a channel selection information message.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Pathak to the system of Lo to provide the first AP to determine one or more service parameters associated with the first AP. The one or more service parameters may include at least one of a rate requirement and a received signal strength indicator tolerance. The instructions may cause the first AP to include the one or more service parameters in the channel preference report message prior to transmitting the channel preference report message to the Multi-AP Controller (paragraph 0010).
Claims 6-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lo et al. (US 2024/0223439 A1) in view of Pathak et al. (US 2018/0310279 A1) and further in view of Gomes (US 2022/0188168 A1) and further in view of Singhal et al. (US 2018/0338244 A1).
Regarding claim 6, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses wherein the data frame comprises a beacon frame.
In an analogous art, Singhal discloses wherein the data frame comprises a beacon frame (Paragraph 0054, 0093 disclose data frame comprises a beacon frame).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Singhal to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN) (paragraph 0093).
Regarding claim 7, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses the AP to advertise a wireless local area network (WLAN) using the beacon frame when the AP is as-of-yet, un-provisioned in a network.
In an analogous art, Singhal discloses the AP to advertise a wireless local area network (WLAN) using the beacon frame when the AP is as-of-yet, un-provisioned in a network. (Paragraphs 0093-0094 disclose data frame comprises a beacon frame, a Country Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The Country IE 400 may include an Element ID field 401, a Length field 402, a Country String field 403, a First Channel field 404, a Number of Channels field 405, a Maximum Transmit Power Level field 406, and an optional Pad field 407. Paragraph 0054 discloses The WLAN subsystem 320 includes at least a WLAN controller 321 and a WLAN radio 322. The WLAN radio 322 can transmit and receive WLAN signals (such as Wi-Fi signals) to and from other devices. An AP located in the country in which the wireless device 200 is operating may transmit country codes to the wireless device in beacon frames. In some aspects, the country codes may be contained in a Country Information Element (IE) included in the beacon frames).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Singhal to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN) (paragraph 0093).
Regarding claim 8, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses the AP to advertise a wireless local area network (WLAN) using the beacon frame when the AP is already provisioned in an existing, but disabled WLAN.
In an analogous art, Singhal discloses the AP to advertise a wireless local area network (WLAN) using the beacon frame when the AP is already provisioned in an existing, but disabled WLAN (Paragraphs 0093-0094 disclose data frame comprises a beacon frame, a Country Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The Country IE 400 may include an Element ID field 401, a Length field 402, a Country String field 403, a First Channel field 404, a Number of Channels field 405, a Maximum Transmit Power Level field 406, and an optional Pad field 407. Paragraph 0054 discloses The WLAN subsystem 320 includes at least a WLAN controller 321 and a WLAN radio 322. The WLAN radio 322 can transmit and receive WLAN signals (such as Wi-Fi signals) to and from other devices. An AP located in the country in which the wireless device 200 is operating may transmit country codes to the wireless device in beacon frames. In some aspects, the country codes may be contained in a Country Information Element (IE) included in the beacon frames).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Singhal to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN) (paragraph 0093).
Regarding claim 9, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses the AP to transmit the beacon frame in an existing WLAN when the AP is already provisioned in the existing WLAN.
In an analogous art, Singhal discloses the AP to transmit the beacon frame in an existing WLAN when the AP is already provisioned in the existing WLAN (Paragraphs 0093-0094 disclose data frame comprises a beacon frame, a Country Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN). The Country IE 400 may include an Element ID field 401, a Length field 402, a Country String field 403, a First Channel field 404, a Number of Channels field 405, a Maximum Transmit Power Level field 406, and an optional Pad field 407. Paragraph 0054 discloses The WLAN subsystem 320 includes at least a WLAN controller 321 and a WLAN radio 322. The WLAN radio 322 can transmit and receive WLAN signals (such as Wi-Fi signals) to and from other devices. An AP located in the country in which the wireless device 200 is operating may transmit country codes to the wireless device in beacon frames. In some aspects, the country codes may be contained in a Country Information Element (IE) included in the beacon frames).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Singhal to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide Information Element (IE) 400 that may be included in a beacon frame transmitted in a wireless local area network (WLAN) (paragraph 0093).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lo et al. in view of Pathak et al. and further in view of Gomes and further in view of Yamaura (US 2017/0078969 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses wherein the data frame comprises a beacon frame.
In an analogous art, Yamaura discloses wherein the data frame comprises a probe response (Paragraph 0074 discloses data frame comprises a probe response, control messages include notification information such as beacons, received responses to beacons, Probe requests, and Probe responses).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lo to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide wireless communication devices that exchange various kinds of information by using wireless communications, an information processing device, and a communication method (Paragraph 0002).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lo et al. (US 2024/0223439 A1) in view of Pathak et al. (US 2018/0310279 A1) and further in view of Gomes and further in view of Wang et al. (US 2023/0053044 A1)
Regarding claim 11, Lo in combination with Pathak and Gomes does not discloses the AP to take correction action in response to a determination by a network management service (NMS) that received the data frame.
In an analogous art, Wang discloses the AP to take correction action in response to a determination by a network management service (NMS) that received the data frame (Paragraph 0096-0101 disclose determine a root cause of SLE degradation based on any one or more of a time to connect metric, a throughput metric, a coverage metric, a capacity metric, a roaming metric, a successful connects metric, and/or an AP health metric. In addition or alternatively, this may include determining root cause of SLE deterioration based on a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and/or a signal-to-noise (SNR) of the wireless signal received from a current AP to which the client device is associated. The network management system can determine if the root cause is associated with an AP (908). For example, the one or more processor(s) may determine that there has been an issue with a specific AP that caused degradation in SLE metrics for the UEs. If the root cause is associated with an AP (“YES” branch of 908), then the one or more processors may determine a classification of the AP (910). For example, the classification may be based on betweenness centrality of the AP, or heuristics such as connection times of client devices of the AP, bandwidth utilization of the AP, or any of the techniques described herein. Further details on techniques for determining whether an AP is an edge AP are discussed below with respect to FIG. 11).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the technique of Lo to the modified system of Lo, Pathak and Gomes to provide automated techniques for performing network management actions based on a classification of an access point. (Paragraph 0001).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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. Examiner recommend to clarify the 35 U.S.C 112(b) rejection of claim 1 as well.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Richards et al. (US 20180091413 A1) discloses in Fig. 4, elements of a network health state descriptor which may be used to store information aggregated on behalf of a customer, according to at least some embodiments. Such descriptors may be prepared and/or stored by NHMS nodes, and subsets (or all) of the contents of the descriptors may be used to provide network health state reports or results to client destinations. As shown, a given health state descriptor 402 may include, among other elements, a client identifier 403, an endpoint pair category 404 to which the descriptor applies, a timestamp or time period 406, an impairment-related summary state 408, request/response success statistics 410, latency statistics 412, packet loss rate statistics 414, trend information 416, and/or identifiers 418 of the particular data sources or tools used for the information contained in the descriptor (Paragraph 0056).
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 ROMANI OHRI whose telephone number is (571)272-5420. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, UN C CHO can be reached at 5712727919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROMANI OHRI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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