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 .
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.
Claims 33, 40, 41, 84, 114-116 and 123-125 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Neves et al. (US Pub. 2017/0086103) in view of Condeixa et al. (US Pub. 2017/0215121) and further in view of Stephens, JR. (US Pub. 2022/0368627).
Regarding claims 33, 84, 116 and 125, Neves teaches a second access point (AP), comprising: a processing system that includes one or more processors and one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors, the processing system configured to cause the second AP (AP 812 in Figure 8) to: establish a hotspot link to a cellular-enabled device (“Outdoor Wi-Fi Hotspot” 832 in Figure 8) with a first backhaul connection to a communication network (“Cloud” 841 in Figure 8); establish connection (“DSRC” in Figure 8) from a first AP (AP 813 in Figure 8) to the second AP (AP 812 in Figure 8). Neves, however, does not teach establish an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel from a first AP to the second AP, the first AP having a second backhaul connection to the communication network. Condeixa teaches establish an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel from a first AP to the second AP (“tunneling (e.g., the use of “IP tunnels”), for example both in backend servers and in APs (e.g., fixed APs and/or mobile APs)” in [0153]), the first AP having a second backhaul connection to the communication network (“the Mobile APs may utilize a direct connection (e.g., a cellular connection) with the backbone provider network (or Cloud)” in [0102]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Neves to have establish an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel from a first AP to the second AP, the first AP having a second backhaul connection to the communication network as taught by Condeixa in order to offer Internet access to employees, passengers and mobile users travelling in the city [0041]. Neves in view of Condeixa, however, does not teach establish a hotspot link to a cellular-enabled device with a first backhaul connection to a communication network according to device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device and first communication link information corresponding to the first backhaul connection and forward wireless communications between the communication network and one or more client devices of a wireless local area network (WLAN) via one or both of the hotspot link and the IP tunnel according to the device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device and one or more of the first communication link information associated with the first backhaul connection, second communication link information associated with the second backhaul connection, and third communication link information associated with the hotspot link. Stephens, JR. teaches establish a hotspot link to a cellular-enabled device with a first backhaul connection to a communication network according to device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device (“capable of providing a cellular connection to the internet, via for example, a personal hotspot capability of the cellular device” in [0031]) and first communication link information corresponding to the first backhaul connection (see “Determine alternative internet connections” in step 220 in Figure 2 and “Based on querying the cellular devices, the gateway device may be configured to determine connectivity statistics associated with the cellular devices, such as bandwidth and latency” in [0033]) and forward wireless communications between the communication network and one or more client devices of a wireless local area network (WLAN) via one or both of the hotspot link and the IP tunnel (“internet traffic, may be routed via a second internet connection provided by the selected cellular device or dedicated hotspot device (e.g., the second internet connection via the cellular network 106 in FIG. 1)” in [0036]) according to the device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device (“capable of providing a cellular connection to the internet, via for example, a personal hotspot capability of the cellular device” in [0031]) and one or more of the first communication link information associated with the first backhaul connection, second communication link information associated with the second backhaul connection, and third communication link information associated with the hotspot link (see “The gateway device may be configured to determine which cellular device has the best cellular connection based on the connectivity statistics associated with the cellular devices. The gateway device may be configured to select one of the cellular devices based on one or more other metrics associated with the cellular devices and/or cellular networks to which they are connected. The one or more metrics may comprise one or more of a signal strength, a latency, a bandwidth, a data rate, connection quality metrics (e.g., jitter), historical connection quality metrics, traffic limits (e.g., a monthly data limit), or a data cost associated with the cellular device and/or its cellular network connection” in [0035] and “Based on querying the cellular devices, the gateway device may be configured to determine connectivity statistics associated with the cellular devices, such as bandwidth and latency” in [0033]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Neves in view of Condeixa to have establish a hotspot link to a cellular-enabled device with a first backhaul connection to a communication network according to device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device and first communication link information corresponding to the first backhaul connection and forward wireless communications between the communication network and one or more client devices of a wireless local area network (WLAN) via one or both of the hotspot link and the IP tunnel according to the device capability information associated with the cellular-enabled device and one or more of the first communication link information associated with the first backhaul connection, second communication link information associated with the second backhaul connection, and third communication link information associated with the hotspot link as taught by Stephens, JR. in order to provide the best cellular connection [0035].
Regarding claims 40, 114 and 123, Neves teaches the device capability information comprises device capacity information associated with the cellular-enabled device, a backhaul data rate of the cellular-enabled device, a processing power of the cellular-enabled device, a power status of the cellular-enabled device, a processing or memory resource utilization level of the cellular-enabled device, device profile information associated with the cellular-enabled device, data capacity information associated with the cellular-enabled device, or a combination thereof (check authentication for the hotspot in step 960 in Figure 9).
Regarding claims 41, 115 and 124, Neves teaches the first communication link information, the second communication link information, and the third communication link information comprises one or more of a link quality, a data rate, a capacity, an available bandwidth, a frequency channel, or an interference level associated with one or more of the first backhaul connection, the second backhaul connection, the hotspot link, a wireless communication link between the first AP and the second AP, wireless communication links between the one or more client devices and the first AP, wireless communication links between the one or more client devices and the second AP, a wireless communication link between the cellular-enabled device and the first AP, or any combination thereof (check for internet connectivity in step 940 in Figure 9).
Claims 34, 108, 117 and 126 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Neves et al. in view of Condeixa et al. and Stephens, JR. and further in view of Song et al. (US Pub. 2013/0044669).
Regarding claims 34, 108, 117 and 126, Neves in view of Condeixa and Stephens, JR. teaches the limitations in claims 33, 84, 116 and 125 as shown above. Neves in view of Condeixa and Stephens, JR., however, does not teach perform network address translation (NAT) from the WLAN associated with the one or more client devices to a hotspot WLAN associated with the cellular-enabled device. Song teaches perform network address translation (NAT) from the WLAN associated with the one or more client devices to a hotspot WLAN associated with the cellular-enabled device (“the WLAN 420 includes the WLAN AP 425 (e.g., a WiFi router or hotspot, etc.) that was mentioned above, and further includes a Network Address Translation (NAT) component 430” in [0060]). It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Neves in view of Condeixa and Stephens, JR. to have perform network address translation (NAT) from the WLAN associated with the one or more client devices to a hotspot WLAN associated with the cellular-enabled device as taught by Song in order for the WLAN to have its own security [0059].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 35-39, 109-113, 118-122 and 127 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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 CLEMENCE S HAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3158. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM EST.
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/CLEMENCE S HAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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