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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement filed on 07/24/2023 and 06/27/2024 complies with 37 CFR 1.97. Therefore, the information referred therein has been considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 6-7, 9-10, 12-16, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al. (US 2021/0084711).
Regarding claim 1, Park discloses a device comprising: a first radio configured to transmit over a first link and a second link of a first wireless band, the first radio configured to detect an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) communication on the first link of the first wireless band ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); and the first radio configured to transmit over the second link of the first wireless band, responsive to the detection of the OBSS communication on the first link of the first wireless band ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”); wherein the device is configured to operate as an access point (AP) for one or more stations of a wireless network ([0042], “An STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of-service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs.”).
Regarding claim 2, Park discloses the device of claim 1, further comprising: a second radio configured to transmit over the first link and the second link of a second wireless band; the second radio configured to detect an OBSS communication on the second link of the second wireless band ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); and the second radio configured to transmit over the second link of the second wireless band, responsive to the detection of the OBSS communication on the first link of the second wireless band ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”).
Regarding claim 6, Park discloses the device of claim 2, further comprising a third radio, separate from the first and second radio to monitor at least one of the first wireless band or the second wireless band ([0059], “Referring to FIG. 1C, there are shown two multi-link logical entities on either side which includes multiple STAs that can set up links with each other. For infrastructure framework, a multi-link AP logical entity may include APs (e.g., AP1, AP2, and AP3) on one side, and multi-link non-AP logical entity, which may include non-APs (STA1, STA2, and STA3) on the other side.”).
Regarding claim 7, Park discloses the device of claim 6, wherein the third radio is configured to simultaneously monitor each of the first wireless band and the second wireless band ([0075], “Ability to monitor one or more of the enabled links without explicitly informing the AP. If this capability is supported and the mode is enabled, the STA can transition between different links and the AP is required to transmit a Control frame (e.g., RTS) to poll the STA prior to transmitting any DL Data frame.”).
Regarding claim 9, Park discloses the device of claim 8, wherein the device is further configured to: determine a duration of a first OBSS communication, based on content of the detected OBSS communication; determine a duration of a second OBSS communication ([0166], “FIG. 10 shows the case for the 80+80 MHz case where the primary 80 MHz is busy due to overlapping basic service set (OBSS) transmission. The receiving STA monitors the secondary 80 MHz channel using the wake-up receiver. When the primary 80 MHz is busy, the AP switches to the secondary 80 MHz channel and resumes the CW backoff and once the CW reaches 0, the AP transmits the wake-up packets over the secondary 80 MHz channel to the receiving STA.”), based on an RTS message received from one of the one or more stations of the wireless network ([0039], “An AP MLD then transmits on any idle channel a control frame (e.g., request to send (RTS) or multi-user (MU) RTS) before either a single data frame or a group of data frames within a single transmit opportunity (TXOP) to indicate that frames will be transmitted on that channel.”); compare the duration of the first OBSS communication to the duration of the second OBSS communication ([0159], “The packet exchanges on the secondary channels may last while the primary 20 MHz channel is busy and this duration information may be obtained from the LENGTH field in the L-SIG field or the TXOP field in HE-SIGA or the Duration field in the MAC header of the OBSS packet received on the primary channel.”); transmit a clear to send (CTS) indication to the one of the one or more stations of the wireless network, indicating a same duration as the RTS message, responsive to a determination that the duration of the first OBSS communication is equal to or greater than the duration of the second OBSS communication ([0116], “In one or more embodiments, upon reception of the control frame (RTS 505 (or MU-RTS)), the extra 802.11 receiver 521 indicates to the main radio 522 of the non-AP MLD (e.g., STA 520) to switch its operation channel to the channel it received the control frame (e.g., channel 2). The extra 802.11 receiver 521 also switches its channel to the channel the main radio was operating (e.g., channel 1). The non-AP MLD (e.g., STA 520) responds back with a control frame (e.g., CTS 507) to confirm that the non-AP STA is ready to receive data frame 510 on the channel it exchanged the control frames.”); and transmit a CTS indication including the duration of the first OBSS communication to the one of the one or more stations of the wireless network, indicating the duration thereof, responsive to a determination that the duration of the second OBSS communication is less than the duration of the first OBSS communication ([0109], “Similarly, when RTS 405, CTS 407 and data 410 are being transmitted on channel 2, channel 1 shows the time as busy, where the time covers the duration where these frames are being exchanged on channel 2.”).
Regarding claim 10, Park discloses a device, comprising: a plurality of radios, each radio configured to monitor a plurality of links of a respective wireless band, and to transmit over the plurality of links of the respective wireless band ([0142], “After going to this state, the STA MLD monitors one or more or none of the enabled links according to its own internal algorithm. The STA is expected to at least monitor one link.”); each of the plurality of radios is configured to detect an unavailability of a primary link of the respective wireless band ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”); each of the plurality of radios is configured to monitor a secondary link of the respective wireless band, responsive to the detected unavailability of the primary link ([0109], “The non-AP MLD and AP MLD exchange data frames on one-link at a time. As can be seen in FIG. 4, when data is being transmitted on channel 1, channel 2 is shown to be busy. Similarly, when RTS 405, CTS 407 and data 410 are being transmitted on channel 2, channel 1 shows the time as busy, where the time covers the duration where these frames are being exchanged on channel 2.”); and wherein the device is configured to operate as an access point (AP) for one or more stations of a wireless network ([0042], “An STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of-service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs.”).
Regarding claim 12, Park discloses the device of claim 10, further comprising: at least one of the plurality of radios is configured to simultaneously monitor two or more links of the respective wireless band ([0099], “In one or more embodiments, a single-radio non-AP MLD listens to two (or more) channels simultaneously by configuring 2×2 Tx/Rx module to 1×1 Tx/Rx on each channel/band (e.g., 5 GHz and 6 GHz) to listen/monitor for incoming packets on each channel. Or, as noted above, other architectures for this configuration could also be used.”).
Regarding claim 13, Park discloses the device of claim 10, further comprising: a further radio, separate from the plurality of radios, configured to simultaneously monitor two or more links at least one of the respective wireless bands ([0060], “In the example of FIG. 1C, the multi-link AP logical entity and multi-link non-AP logical entity may be two separate physical devices, where each one comprises a number of virtual or logical devices. For example, the multi-link AP logical entity may comprise three APs, AP1 operating on 2.4 GHz, AP2 operating on 5 GHz, and AP3 operating on 6 GHz.”).
Regarding claim 14, Park discloses the device of claim 10, further comprising: a further radio, separate from the plurality of radios, configured to communicate an availability of one of the plurality of primary links or one of the plurality of secondary links ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”).
Regarding claim 15, Park discloses a method comprising: monitoring, by a first radio of a device, a first link of a first wireless band; detecting, by the first radio, an OBSS communication on the first link of the first wireless band ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); monitoring, by the first radio, a second link of the first wireless band responsive to the detection of the OBSS communication ([0142], “After going to this state, the STA MLD monitors one or more or none of the enabled links according to its own internal algorithm. The STA is expected to at least monitor one link.”); transmitting, by the first radio, over the second link of the first wireless band, responsive to the detection of the OBSS communication ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”).
Regarding claim 16, Park disclosers the method of claim 15, further comprising: monitoring, by a second radio of the device, the first link of a second wireless band; detecting, by the second radio, a second OBSS communication on the first link of the second wireless band ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); monitoring, by the second radio, the second link of the second wireless band responsive to the detection of the second OBSS communication; transmitting, by the second radio, over the second link of the first wireless band, responsive to the detection of the second OBSS communication ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”).
Regarding claim 19, Park discloses the method of claim 16, further comprising simultaneously monitoring, via a third radio, separate from the first and second radio each of the first wireless band and the second wireless band ([0059], “Referring to FIG. 1C, there are shown two multi-link logical entities on either side which includes multiple STAs that can set up links with each other. For infrastructure framework, a multi-link AP logical entity may include APs (e.g., AP1, AP2, and AP3) on one side, and multi-link non-AP logical entity, which may include non-APs (STA1, STA2, and STA3) on the other side.”).
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.
Claims 3 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2021/0084711) in view of Monajemi et al. (US 2024/0040525).
Regarding claim 3, Park does not disclose the radios being software defined. Monajemi discloses the device of claim 2, wherein: the first radio and second radio comprise software defined radios ([0022], “In some embodiments of the disclosure, controller 105 may be implemented by a Digital Network Architecture Center (DNAC) controller (i.e., a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller) that may configure information for coverage environment 110 in order to provide collision avoidance in MLD MBBR.”) the first radio can transmit over the second wireless band and the second radio can transmit over the first wireless band ([0017], “STR devices may have two independent Transceivers (TXRX) capable of simultaneous and unrestricted operation on a given set of links (e.g., any channel in 2.4 GHz plus any channel in 5 GHz, 5 GHz plus 6 GHz, etc.).”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Monajemi to have the radios being software defined. The motivation would have been to improve throughput gains and latency (e.g., Monajemi [0017]).
Regarding claim 11, Park does not disclose the radios being software defined. Monajemi discloses the device of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of radios is a software defined radio ([0022], “In some embodiments of the disclosure, controller 105 may be implemented by a Digital Network Architecture Center (DNAC) controller (i.e., a Software-Defined Network (SDN) controller) that may configure information for coverage environment 110 in order to provide collision avoidance in MLD MBBR.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Monajemi to have the radios being software defined. The motivation would have been to improve throughput gains and latency (e.g., Monajemi [0017]).
Claims 4-5 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2021/0084711) in view of Dasam et al. (US 2023/0239786).
Regarding claim 4, Park discloses the first radio is configured to transmit over one of the third link and the fourth link the first radio configured to detect an OBSS communication on the third link of the first wireless band ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); and the first radio configured to transmit over the fourth link of the first wireless band, responsive to the detection of the OBSS communication on the third link of the first wireless band ([0029], “The transmitting and receiving STAs switch to the secondary channel after determining that the packet on the primary 20 MHz channel is from OBSS and transmit/receive a packet on the secondary channel if the secondary channel is idle while the primary channel is busy.”). Park does not disclose the subdivision of the first link. Dasam discloses the device of claim 3, wherein: the device is configured to subdivide the first link into a third link and a fourth link ([0022], “Each link by which a multi-link station may communicate with an access point may be mapped to a band (such as a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz) and a channel (which may define a sub-band, e.g. a narrower frequency range, of an assigned band, such as a 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz or any other such range within the frequency band). MLO capability of a multi-link station may provide high throughput by splitting data flow over different links”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Dasam to have the subdivision of the first link. The motivation would have been to increase power efficiency (e.g., Dasam [0030]).
Regarding claim 5, Park does not disclose the multiple links for each band on a specific frequency band. Dasam discloses the device of claim 3, wherein each link of the first wireless band is a wireless link equal to or greater than 20 MHz in the 5 GHz range, and each link of the second wireless band is equal to or greater than 20 MHz in the 6 GHz range ([0022], “Each link by which a multi-link station may communicate with an access point may be mapped to a band (such as a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz) and a channel (which may define a sub-band, e.g. a narrower frequency range, of an assigned band, such as a 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz or any other such range within the frequency band).”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Dasam to have the multiple links for each band on a specific frequency band. The motivation would have been to increase power efficiency (e.g., Dasam [0030]).
Regarding claim 17, Park discloses monitoring, by the first radio, the third link; detecting, by the first radio, an OBSS communication on the third link ([0028], “It may be proposed to enable a single-radio STA (e.g., a STA that can transmit and receive on one channel at a time) to transmit and receive a packet on a secondary channel when the primary channel is occupied by a packet from a neighboring STA in an overlapping basic service set (OBSS).”); and monitoring, by the first radio, the fourth link responsive to the OBSS communication on the third link ([0059], “Referring to FIG. 1C, there are shown two multi-link logical entities on either side which includes multiple STAs that can set up links with each other. For infrastructure framework, a multi-link AP logical entity may include APs (e.g., AP1, AP2, and AP3) on one side, and multi-link non-AP logical entity, which may include non-APs (STA1, STA2, and STA3) on the other side.”). Park does not disclose the subdivision of the first link. Dasam discloses the method of claim 16, further comprising: subdividing, by the device, the first link into a third link and a fourth link ([0022], “Each link by which a multi-link station may communicate with an access point may be mapped to a band (such as a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz) and a channel (which may define a sub-band, e.g. a narrower frequency range, of an assigned band, such as a 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz or any other such range within the frequency band). MLO capability of a multi-link station may provide high throughput by splitting data flow over different links”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Dasam to have the subdivision of the first link. The motivation would have been to increase power efficiency (e.g., Dasam [0030]).
Regarding claim 18, Park does not disclose the multiple links for each band on a specific frequency band. Dasam discloses the method of claim 16, wherein each link of the first wireless band is a wireless link equal to or greater than 20 MHz in the 5 GHz range, and each link of the second wireless band is equal to or greater than 20 MHz in the 6 GHz range ([0022], “Each link by which a multi-link station may communicate with an access point may be mapped to a band (such as a frequency band around 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz) and a channel (which may define a sub-band, e.g. a narrower frequency range, of an assigned band, such as a 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz or any other such range within the frequency band).”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Dasam to have the multiple links for each band on a specific frequency band. The motivation would have been to increase power efficiency (e.g., Dasam [0030]).
Claims 8 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al. (US 2021/0084711) in view of Homchaudhuri et al. (US 2024/0107578).
Regarding claim 8, Park does not disclose the sideband link. Homchaudhuri discloses the device of claim 1, further comprising a sideband link ([0064], “To avoid the same packet (with the same sequence number) from being sent on both channels, some form of serialization may be performed. The serialization may synchronize access to a packet by multiple WiFi SoCs. As illustrated, one possible way to achieve this serialization by (sideband) signaling between the WiFi SoCs, using an interface referred to as an inter-chip signaling bridge (labeled ICSB).”) to communicate an availability of one of the first link or the second link ([0055], “The mid-loop algorithm may decide (e.g., based on channel conditions, traffic load, and channel loading on links 1 and 2) whether to route packets to/from peer p1 in a single link mode or a multi-link mode (e.g., using all available links). The multi-link mode could include multi-link multi-radio (MLMR) or multi-link single radio (MLSR).”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Homchaudhuri to have the sideband link. The motivation would have been to lower operating latency (e.g., Homchaudhuri [0023]).
Regarding claim 20, Park does not disclose the sideband link. Homchaudhuri discloses the method of claim 16, further comprising communicating an availability of one of the first link or the second link ([0055], “The mid-loop algorithm may decide (e.g., based on channel conditions, traffic load, and channel loading on links 1 and 2) whether to route packets to/from peer p1 in a single link mode or a multi-link mode (e.g., using all available links). The multi-link mode could include multi-link multi-radio (MLMR) or multi-link single radio (MLSR).”) via a sideband link ([0064], “To avoid the same packet (with the same sequence number) from being sent on both channels, some form of serialization may be performed. The serialization may synchronize access to a packet by multiple WiFi SoCs. As illustrated, one possible way to achieve this serialization by (sideband) signaling between the WiFi SoCs, using an interface referred to as an inter-chip signaling bridge (labeled ICSB).”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Park in view of Homchaudhuri to have the sideband link. The motivation would have been to lower operating latency (e.g., Homchaudhuri [0023]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Nick A Sundara whose telephone number is (571)272-6749. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7:30-5:30 EST.
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/NICK ANON SUNDARA/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479