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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/15/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because of the new ground of rejection.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: "a first neural network module having a plurality of first trained parameters," recited in claims 1 and 15. The corresponding structure is the first neural network module, a model stored in nonvolatile memory (0018) comprising a long short-term memory, an optional dropout layer, and a dense layer (0020-0021), executed by the control circuit comprising a CPU, GPU, or TPU (0018). The algorithm is disclosed at 0022-0024: the forgetting gate layer filters the previous unit state, the input gate layer calculates and multiplies the update data and intermediate unit state, the filtered and update data are added to update the current unit state, and the output gate layer multiplies the Sigmoid of the inputs with the tanh of the current unit state to obtain the current output.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
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 nonobviousness.
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) 1-7 and 12-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20190362237 A1 herein Choi in view of US 20240163755 A1 herein Tchouankem and further in view of US 11140695 B1 herein Eyuboglu.
Claim 1, Choi discloses A wireless node device (Abstract, wireless access points), the wireless node device comprising:
a first neural network module having a plurality of first trained parameters (0023, memory of the access points includes an instance of the neural network; 0024, weights of the neural network);
a wireless network communication circuit (0021, wireless interfaces in the access point include WLAN adapters);
a control circuit coupled to the first neural network module and the wireless network communication circuit (0021, the access point includes a processor circuit and memory with neural network instances), the control circuit configured to:
obtain, from the wireless network communication circuit, a time-series of current state data corresponding to a plurality of time points (0025, training data is collected over a plurality of time intervals, training data such as RSS values), wherein the time series of current state data comprises network node information for one or more network nodes of a multi-AP network (0021, multiple access points providing network connections to multiple user devices and computing systems; 0033, indices of APs);
load the time series of current state data into the first neural network module to obtain estimated network data (0029, the neural network can take information as vector inputs, for example RSS data); and
control the wireless network communication circuit according to the estimated network data (0033, using the trained neural network to determine location in runtime operation, i.e. runtime use of neural network outputs and message flows between devices and APs).
Choi may not explicitly disclose the network node information comprising topological distance information representing a hop distance from a corresponding network node to a controller of the multi-AP network; predicted future network condition data based on temporal dependencies of the time series of current state data; control the wireless network communication circuit according to the estimated network data by proactively selecting a communication channel or radio frequency band based on the predicted future network condition data.
Tchouankem discloses predicted future network condition data based on temporal dependencies of the time series of current state data (0007, obtaining a predicted quality of service indicator for one or more channels for a future period of time; 0037, the predictive quality of service entity evaluates the measurement data for all channels and provides a prediction on the quality of service of these channels for a future time period);
control the wireless network communication circuit according to the estimated network data by proactively selecting a communication channel or radio frequency band based on the predicted future network condition data (0008, a trained channel switching agent is able to proactively initiate channel switching based on predictions for quality of service instead of only reacting to deteriorations; 0036, proactively deciding on dynamic channel switching; 0049, channel selection/band allocation). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include channel selection based on machine learning as taught by Tchouankem so as to proactively switch from one communication channel to another based on a predicted quality of service with improved decisions (0019).
Choi may not explicitly disclose the network node information comprising topological distance information representing a hop distance from a corresponding network node to a controller of the multi-AP network.
Eyuboglu discloses the network node information comprising topological distance information representing a hop distance from a corresponding network node to a controller of the multi-AP network (Col 46: 30-40, an N-hop MP has a hop distance of N to an MP-GW, the phrase hop distance referring to the number of hops from MP to MP ultimately ending in a hop to an MP-GW; Col 21: 3-23 , all MP-GWs and all active MPs advertise their hop distance, MPs may transmit their hop distance and airlink load information in the MIB or in the system information block; Col 8: 34-49, a first mesh node linked to the controller through the radio node and a second mesh node linked to the controller through the first mesh node). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include a hop distance advertised by each node as taught by Eyuboglu so as to allow the controller to trigger a handover based on the difference in the hop distance of the mesh nodes (Col 8: 25-33).
Claim 2, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 1.
Choi discloses wherein the current state data comprises time information, signal strength data, network traffic data, network latency data and noise data (0025, time intervals; 0024, RSS values and CSI RTT; 0031, CSI and any other attribute or derived attribute of a wireless signal).
Claim 3, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 1.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the estimated network data comprises a channel selection decision.
Tchouankem discloses wherein the estimated network data comprises a channel selection decision (0007, the model provides an output related to a channel selection for the first communication link; 0016, an output of the model comprises an indication of the second channel). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include channel selection based on machine learning as taught by Tchouankem so as to proactively switch from one communication channel to another based on a predicted quality of service with improved decisions (0019).
Claim 4, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 1.
Choi discloses wherein the wireless node device is configured to transmit at least a portion of the current state data to an electronic device external to the wireless node device (0021-0023, a computing device; 0024, weights of the neural network are trained based on the training data of the computing system);
the wireless node device is further configured to update the first trained parameters based on the updated training parameters received from the electronic device (Fig. 6, PosParamReq, PosParamResp and PosParamUpdate show parameter updating between the computing system and the APs, thus transmission for updating of parameters).
Claim 5, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 4.
Choi discloses wherein the current state data comprises a network node number in the multi-AP network (0033, indices of APs, i.e. AP k, thus a node number).
Claim 6, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 5.
Choi discloses wherein the network node information comprises physical distance information (0026-0033; 0036, estimated device locations and per-AP distances) and communication capability information of the network node (0024-0031, reliability of computed distances and RSS, CSI, RTT and channel delay profile; 0029, communication bands of 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz).
Claim 7, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 6.
Choi discloses wherein the communication capability information comprises a radio frequency band number and one or more radio frequency band information (0029, communication bands of 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz).
Claim 12, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 1.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the estimated network data comprises an actuation time, a recommendation node and channel recommendation information.
Tchouankem discloses wherein the estimated network data comprises an actuation time, a recommendation node and channel recommendation information (0016, an output of the model comprises an indication of the second channel and an indication of a timing of a channel switching procedure; 0042, the channel switching agent indicates a new channel to a client in a channel switching 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 modify Choi to include channel selection based on machine learning as taught by Tchouankem so as to proactively switch from one communication channel to another based on a predicted quality of service with improved decisions (0019).
Claim 13, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 12.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the channel recommendation information comprises one or more recommendation connection information.
Tchouankem discloses wherein the channel recommendation information comprises one or more recommendation connection information (0042, the channel switching agent indicates a new channel to a client in a channel switching message and the client performs the necessary steps for establishing a link together with the access point on the new channel; 0037, the predictive quality of service entity provides a ranking of all available channels). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include channel selection based on machine learning as taught by Tchouankem so as to proactively switch from one communication channel to another based on a predicted quality of service with improved decisions (0019).
Claim 14, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 1.
Choi discloses wherein the first neural network module comprises a recurrent neural network including a long short-term memory (LSTM) structure (0064, a single-layer RNN with LSTM unit).
Claim 15, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 1.
Claim 16, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 14.
Claim 17, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 2.
Claim 18, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 5.
Claim 19, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 6.
Claim 20, as analyzed with respect to the limitations as discussed in claim 12.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu and further in view of US 20210014911 A1 herein Patil.
Claim 8, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 7.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the radio frequency band information comprises a basic service set (BSS) number, a high throughput (HT) capability, a very high throughput (VHT) capability, a channel width and a transmitting power.
Patil discloses wherein the radio frequency band information comprises a basic service set (BSS) number (0003), a high throughput (HT) capability, a very high throughput (VHT) capability, a channel width (0010) and a transmitting power (0178). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include the various capabilities as taught by Patil so as to identify the operating capabilities of each radio frequency band supported by the access point (0010).
Claim(s) 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu and further in view of US 20170272977 A1 herein Rengarajan.
Claim 9, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu discloses the wireless node device of claim 4.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the current state data comprises a link number in the multi-AP network and one or more link information.
Rengarajan discloses wherein the current state data comprises a link number in the multi-AP network and one or more link information (0028, the access points have wireless links for client connectivity and for backhaul and support at least two Wi-Fi wireless channels; 0044, data rate for each possible link in the network and packet error rates on each link). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include per-link measurement data reported for optimization as taught by Rengarajan so as to adapt the topology and configuration of the plurality of access points in real-time based on the operating environment (0024).
Claim 10, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu and further in view of Rengarajan discloses the wireless node device of claim 9.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the link information comprises a source node, a target node and a plurality of channel information.
Rengarajan discloses wherein the link information comprises a source node, a target node (0033-0034, signal strengths and supportable data rates between all nodes as well as between all nodes and all Wi-Fi client devices) and a plurality of channel information (0030, different channels and bands are used between access points and between the Wi-Fi client device; 0036, selection of the channels on which each node should operate for the client links and the backhaul links). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include per-link measurement data reported for optimization as taught by Rengarajan so as to adapt the topology and configuration of the plurality of access points in real-time based on the operating environment (0024).
Claim 11, Choi in view of Tchouankem and further in view of Eyuboglu and further in view of Rengarajan discloses the wireless node device of claim 10.
Choi may not explicitly disclose wherein the channel information comprises a signal strength, a channel maximum bandwidth, a noise index and a channel utilization rate corresponding to a plurality of channels.
Rengarajan discloses wherein the channel information comprises a signal strength (0067, measure the signal strengths from neighboring access points and non-associated clients), a channel maximum bandwidth (0047, operating bandwidths of 20/40 MHz for 2.4 GHz and 20/40/80 MHz for 5 GHz), a noise index (0034, measurements of the interference levels affecting the network from in-network interferers and out-of-network interferers; 0074, out of network interference is estimated by subtracting the in-network interference from the total measured interference) and a channel utilization rate corresponding to a plurality of channels (0067, the busyness of the channel due to Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi transmissions and the occupancy levels due to each of the neighboring Basic Service Sets; 0073, the fractions of time the channel is busy, spent transmitting, spent receiving, spent counting down the contention window, and idle). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Choi to include per-link measurement data reported for optimization as taught by Rengarajan so as to adapt the topology and configuration of the plurality of access points in real-time based on the operating environment (0024).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 20230354147 A1 - Connectionless mobility management techniques across different wireless technologies are provided. In an embodiment, a method comprises obtaining, by a controller device that comprises a processor and that is part of a communication network employing a relativistic routing protocol (RRP), condition information regarding operating conditions associated with different access point devices, wherein the communication network comprises router agent devices respectively connected to the different access point devices that communicatively couple the different access point devices to a server device via respective communication links to a router device. The method further comprises determining, by the controller device based on the operating condition information, an assignment of the different access point devices to mobile devices for usage as serving nodes for the mobile devices, and controlling, by the controller device, latency settings of the respective communication links for the mobile devices based on the assignment.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mehmood B. Khan whose telephone number is (571)272-9277. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30 am-6:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Mehmood B. Khan/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463
