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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/26/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed 02/26/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-2, 4-20, 27, and 29-30 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-2, 4-21, and 23-30 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 Objections
Claim 29 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 29 is amended to recited “A transmitter wireless device for wireless communications for wireless communications”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, 8-9, 20-21, 23-24, and 27-30 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 2019/0238195), hereinafter Liu, in further view of Huang et al. (US 2018/0063821), hereinafter Huang.
Regarding Claim 1, Liu teaches: A transmitter wireless device for wireless communications, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory: “The device 600 including a main processor 630, a memory 620 and a transceiver 640 coupled to an array of antenna 601-604” (Liu ¶ 0060), the at least one processor configured to: transmit control signaling to a first receiver wireless device, the control signaling indicating a plurality of different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be applied to at least one of a plurality of spatial streams or a plurality of resource units, and wherein the control signaling indicates that a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “The “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as defined in the current IEEE 802.11 Specifications and Standards can provide DL MU spatial stream and MCS allocation information to allow multiple receive STAs to look up the corresponding MCSs in the data field of the packet. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, group-based allocation of unequal MCSs for a single STA is specified in the “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1B and 1C” (Liu ¶ 0032); the control signaling comprises a single user specific field that indicates the first receiver wireless device: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields . . . Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”) . . . For an MU PPDU with unequal MCSs assigned to multiple user STAs, the values in the “STA-ID” fields of the user fields represent the STA IDs, e.g., two STA IDs in one user block field” (Liu ¶ 0035-0036) and “Each group of spatial streams is modulated and encoded by using a different MCS. The unequal MCS allocation is communicated to the STA by identifying the STA in multiple user fields in a packet preamble, each corresponding to a respectively MCS and the corresponding group of spatial streams” (Liu ¶ 0007); transmit, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more first bits of a first service data unit to the first receiver wireless device via a first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a first resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a first MCS of the plurality of different MCSs: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049); and transmit, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more second bits, of the first service data unit or of a second service data unit, to the first receiver wireless device via a second spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a second resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a second MCS of the plurality of different MCSs, wherein the first MCS is different from the second MCS: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049).
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Liu does not teach: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units.
Regarding Claim 1, Huang teaches: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of recourse units: “The user-specific field 2450 comprises a plurality of BCC (Binary Convolutional Coding) blocks 2460. Each of the BCC blocks 2460 except the last BCC block 2460-N comprises a first user-specific subfield, a second user-specific subfield, a CRC subfield and a tail bits subfield. The last BCC block 2460-N may comprise a single user-specific subfield. Each of user-specific subfields in the user-specific field 2450 carries per-user allocation information (e.g., STA identifier for addressing and the information necessary for decoding the PPDU 100 such as the number of spatial streams and modulation and coding scheme, etc).” (Huang ¶ 0141).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the disclosure of Liu with Huang for the purpose of enabling load balancing between HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. According to Huang: “By distributing resource assignment indications between the HE-SIG-B1 and the HE-SIG-B2, data amount of the HE-SIG-B1 and data amount of the HE-SIG-B2 become similar in size, thus improving padding efficiency in the HE-SIG-B field” (Huang ¶ 0136).
Regarding Claim 2, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein: the control signaling comprises a plurality of user information fields, each of the plurality of user information fields indicates a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units, and each of the plurality of user information fields comprises a user identification associated with the first receiver wireless device: “According to embodiments of the present disclosure. The ID or IDs of a single STA can be specified in the user information fields in correspondence to the multiple MCSs allocated to it. As shown, the “AID 12” in multiple user information fields repeats the same STA ID. Alternatively, the “AID12” field 222 uses a different AID of the STA in each user information field. The “MCS” field 223 contains one of the MCSs assigned to the STA. The “SS allocation” field 221 specifies a group of spatial streams for encoding by using the specified MCS as in field 223” (Liu ¶ 0043).
Regarding Claim 4, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein: the single user specific field comprises a user information field comprising one or more bits, and a first bit value of the one or more bits indicates that the user information field comprises a subfield indicating a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to each respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or each respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields designed to contain information for up to two STAs to decode their payloads, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) sequence and a trail. Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”)” (Liu ¶ 0035).
Regarding Claim 5, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 4, wherein a quantity of bits in the subfield corresponds to a quantity of the plurality of spatial streams or a quantity of the plurality of resource units, wherein the plurality of spatial streams are divided into respective groups of spatial streams that each correspond to a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs or the plurality of resource units are divided into respective groups of resource units that each correspond to a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs: “The spatial streams are assigned into groups. At 302, the AP assigns unequal MCSs to the plurality of groups for information directed to the STA. At 303, the AP generates the DL HE PPDU. At 303, in the PPDU preamble, one or more user specific fields in the HE-SIG-B field are set for the STA. Each user block field in a user specific field identifies the STA once or twice by using the STA ID or AIDs. In some embodiments, in correspondence to the number of MCSs allocated to the STA, an STA ID may be repeated the same number of times in the user specific field” (Liu ¶ 0048), the control signaling further indicating: a size of each of the respective groups of spatial streams or a size of each of the respective groups of resource units, or a quantity of the respective groups of spatial streams or a quantity of the respective groups of resource units: “Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”)” (Liu ¶ 0035).
Regarding Claim 8, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream, each spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams are grouped into one or more spatial streams subsets, and the single user specific field indicates a different MCS associated with each spatial stream subset of the one or more spatial stream subsets: “At 353, the STA processes the information carried in all the groups of the spatial streams associated with the STA based on its STA ID or AIDs located in the user fields of the SIG-B field, and further based on the indication of the group-based unequal MCSs scheme in the SIG-A field. At 354, the information carried in the different groups of spatial streams is decoded according to the respective MCSs applied on the groups. At 355, the decoded information of different spatial groups associated with the STA is combined for further processing” (Liu ¶ 0051).
Regarding Claim 9, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein the control signaling comprises a common field and set of user information fields including the single user specific field, and the at least one processor is configured to: encode the common field and each user information field using a respective code block: “the AP generates a multi-user (MU) Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) which specifies the multiple spatial streams allocated to an STA and the multiple unequal MCSs in the common field of the “SIG-B” field in the preamble . . . In some embodiments, an indication may be inserted in each “user specific field” that is followed by a next “user specific field” assigned to the same STA” (Liu ¶ 0009).
Regarding Claim 20, Liu teaches: A method for wireless communications at a transmitter wireless device, comprising: transmitting control signaling to a first receiver wireless device, the control signaling indicating a plurality of different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be applied to at least one of a plurality of spatial streams or a plurality of resource units: “The “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as defined in the current IEEE 802.11 Specifications and Standards can provide DL MU spatial stream and MCS allocation information to allow multiple receive STAs to look up the corresponding MCSs in the data field of the packet. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, group-based allocation of unequal MCSs for a single STA is specified in the “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1B and 1C” (Liu ¶ 0032), and wherein the control signaling indicates that a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049); the control signaling comprises a single user specific field that indicates the first receiver wireless device: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields . . . Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”) . . . For an MU PPDU with unequal MCSs assigned to multiple user STAs, the values in the “STA-ID” fields of the user fields represent the STA IDs, e.g., two STA IDs in one user block field” (Liu ¶ 0035-0036) and “Each group of spatial streams is modulated and encoded by using a different MCS. The unequal MCS allocation is communicated to the STA by identifying the STA in multiple user fields in a packet preamble, each corresponding to a respectively MCS and the corresponding group of spatial streams” (Liu ¶ 0007); transmitting, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more first bits of a first service data unit to the first receiver wireless device via a first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a first resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a first MCS of the plurality of different MCSs; and transmitting, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more second bits, of the first service data unit or of a second service data unit, to the first receiver wireless device via a second spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a second resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a second MCS of the plurality of different MCSs, wherein the first MCS is different from the second MCS: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049).
Liu does not teach: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units.
Regarding Claim 20, Huang teaches: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of recourse units: “The user-specific field 2450 comprises a plurality of BCC (Binary Convolutional Coding) blocks 2460. Each of the BCC blocks 2460 except the last BCC block 2460-N comprises a first user-specific subfield, a second user-specific subfield, a CRC subfield and a tail bits subfield. The last BCC block 2460-N may comprise a single user-specific subfield. Each of user-specific subfields in the user-specific field 2450 carries per-user allocation information (e.g., STA identifier for addressing and the information necessary for decoding the PPDU 100 such as the number of spatial streams and modulation and coding scheme, etc).” (Huang ¶ 0141).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the disclosure of Liu with Huang for the purpose of enabling load balancing between HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. According to Huang: “By distributing resource assignment indications between the HE-SIG-B1 and the HE-SIG-B2, data amount of the HE-SIG-B1 and data amount of the HE-SIG-B2 become similar in size, thus improving padding efficiency in the HE-SIG-B field” (Huang ¶ 0136).
Regarding Claim 21, Liu teaches: The method of claim 20, wherein: the control signaling comprises a plurality of user information fields, each of the plurality of user information fields indicates a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units, and each of the plurality of user information fields comprises a user identification associated with the first receiver wireless device: “According to embodiments of the present disclosure. The ID or IDs of a single STA can be specified in the user information fields in correspondence to the multiple MCSs allocated to it. As shown, the “AID 12” in multiple user information fields repeats the same STA ID. Alternatively, the “AID12” field 222 uses a different AID of the STA in each user information field. The “MCS” field 223 contains one of the MCSs assigned to the STA. The “SS allocation” field 221 specifies a group of spatial streams for encoding by using the specified MCS as in field 223” (Liu ¶ 0043).
Regarding Claim 22, Liu teaches: The method of claim 20, wherein the control signaling comprises a single user specific field that indicates the first receiver wireless device, the single user specific field indicating each respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “Alternatively, the “AID12” field 222 uses a different AID of the STA in each user information field. The “MCS” field 223 contains one of the MCSs assigned to the STA. The “SS allocation” field 221 specifies a group of spatial streams for encoding by using the specified MCS as in field 223” (Liu ¶ 0043).
Regarding Claim 23, Liu teaches: The method of claim 20, wherein: the single user specific field comprises a user information field comprising one or more bits, and a first bit value of the one or more bits indicates that the user information field comprises a subfield indicating a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to each respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or each respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields designed to contain information for up to two STAs to decode their payloads, a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) sequence and a trail. Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”)” (Liu ¶ 0035).
Regarding Claim 24, Liu teaches: The method of claim 23, wherein a quantity of bits in the subfield corresponds to a quantity of the plurality of spatial streams or a quantity of the plurality of resource units, wherein the plurality of spatial streams are divided into respective groups of spatial streams that each correspond to a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs or the plurality of resource units are divided into respective groups of resource units that each correspond to a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs: “The spatial streams are assigned into groups. At 302, the AP assigns unequal MCSs to the plurality of groups for information directed to the STA. At 303, the AP generates the DL HE PPDU. At 303, in the PPDU preamble, one or more user specific fields in the HE-SIG-B field are set for the STA. Each user block field in a user specific field identifies the STA once or twice by using the STA ID or AIDs. In some embodiments, in correspondence to the number of MCSs allocated to the STA, an STA ID may be repeated the same number of times in the user specific field” (Liu ¶ 0048), the control signaling further indicating: a size of each of the respective groups of spatial streams or a size of each of the respective groups of resource units, or a quantity of the respective groups of spatial streams or a quantity of the respective groups of resource units: “Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”)” (Liu ¶ 0035).
Regarding Claim 27, Liu teaches: The method of claim 20, wherein: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream, each spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams are grouped into one or more spatial streams subsets, and the single user specific field indicates a different MCS associated with each spatial stream subset of the one or more spatial stream subsets: “At 353, the STA processes the information carried in all the groups of the spatial streams associated with the STA based on its STA ID or AIDs located in the user fields of the SIG-B field, and further based on the indication of the group-based unequal MCSs scheme in the SIG-A field. At 354, the information carried in the different groups of spatial streams is decoded according to the respective MCSs applied on the groups. At 355, the decoded information of different spatial groups associated with the STA is combined for further processing” (Liu ¶ 0051).
Regarding Claim 28, Liu teaches: The method of claim 20, wherein the control signaling comprises a common field and set of user information fields including the single user specific field, the method further comprising: encoding the common field and each user information field using a respective code block: “the AP generates a multi-user (MU) Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) which specifies the multiple spatial streams allocated to an STA and the multiple unequal MCSs in the common field of the “SIG-B” field in the preamble . . . In some embodiments, an indication may be inserted in each “user specific field” that is followed by a next “user specific field” assigned to the same STA” (Liu ¶ 0009).
Regarding Claim 29, Liu teaches: A transmitter wireless device for wireless communications for wireless communications, comprising: means for transmitting control signaling to a first receiver wireless device: “The device 600 including a main processor 630, a memory 620 and a transceiver 640 coupled to an array of antenna 601-604” (Liu ¶ 0060), the control signaling indicating a plurality of different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be applied to at least one of a plurality of spatial streams or a plurality of resource units, and wherein the control signaling indicates that a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “The “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as defined in the current IEEE 802.11 Specifications and Standards can provide DL MU spatial stream and MCS allocation information to allow multiple receive STAs to look up the corresponding MCSs in the data field of the packet. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, group-based allocation of unequal MCSs for a single STA is specified in the “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1B and 1C” (Liu ¶ 0032); the control signaling comprises a single user specific field that indicates the first receiver wireless device: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields . . . Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”) . . . For an MU PPDU with unequal MCSs assigned to multiple user STAs, the values in the “STA-ID” fields of the user fields represent the STA IDs, e.g., two STA IDs in one user block field” (Liu ¶ 0035-0036) and “Each group of spatial streams is modulated and encoded by using a different MCS. The unequal MCS allocation is communicated to the STA by identifying the STA in multiple user fields in a packet preamble, each corresponding to a respectively MCS and the corresponding group of spatial streams” (Liu ¶ 0007); means for transmitting: “an array of antenna 601-604” (Liu ¶ 0060), in accordance with the control signaling, one or more first bits of a first service data unit to the first receiver wireless device via a first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a first resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a first MCS of the plurality of different MCSs: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049); and means for transmitting: “an array of antenna 601-604” (Liu ¶ 0060), in accordance with the control signaling, one or more second bits, of the first service data unit or of a second service data unit, to the first receiver wireless device via a second spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a second resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a second MCS of the plurality of different MCSs, wherein the first MCS is different from the second MCS: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049).
Liu does not teach: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units.
Regarding Claim 29, Huang teaches: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of recourse units: “The user-specific field 2450 comprises a plurality of BCC (Binary Convolutional Coding) blocks 2460. Each of the BCC blocks 2460 except the last BCC block 2460-N comprises a first user-specific subfield, a second user-specific subfield, a CRC subfield and a tail bits subfield. The last BCC block 2460-N may comprise a single user-specific subfield. Each of user-specific subfields in the user-specific field 2450 carries per-user allocation information (e.g., STA identifier for addressing and the information necessary for decoding the PPDU 100 such as the number of spatial streams and modulation and coding scheme, etc).” (Huang ¶ 0141).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the disclosure of Liu with Huang for the purpose of enabling load balancing between HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. According to Huang: “By distributing resource assignment indications between the HE-SIG-B1 and the HE-SIG-B2, data amount of the HE-SIG-B1 and data amount of the HE-SIG-B2 become similar in size, thus improving padding efficiency in the HE-SIG-B field” (Huang ¶ 0136).
Regarding Claim 30, Liu teaches: A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communications at a transmitter wireless device, the code comprising instructions executable by at least one processor: “The device 600 including a main processor 630, a memory 620 and a transceiver 640 coupled to an array of antenna 601-604” (Liu ¶ 0060) to: transmit control signaling to a first receiver wireless device, the control signaling indicating a plurality of different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) to be applied to at least one of a plurality of spatial streams or a plurality of resource units, and wherein the control signaling indicates that a respective MCS of the plurality of different MCSs is being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “The “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as defined in the current IEEE 802.11 Specifications and Standards can provide DL MU spatial stream and MCS allocation information to allow multiple receive STAs to look up the corresponding MCSs in the data field of the packet. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, group-based allocation of unequal MCSs for a single STA is specified in the “HE-SIG-B” field 140 as described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1B and 1C” (Liu ¶ 0032) ; the control signaling comprises a single user specific field that indicates the first receiver wireless device: “The “User Specific Field” 170 includes zero or more “User Block Fields,” e.g., field 171, 172 and 173 which may be followed by padding 174. Each “User Block Field” includes two user fields . . . Each user field includes a “STA-ID” field, the value of which represents the identification of the one or two STAs. Each User Specific Field may further include fields for information related to the STAs, such as spatial stream configuration indicating the number of spatial streams for an STA for an MIMO transmission, modulation and coding scheme (e.g., “MCS”), coding mechanism “Coding”) . . . For an MU PPDU with unequal MCSs assigned to multiple user STAs, the values in the “STA-ID” fields of the user fields represent the STA IDs, e.g., two STA IDs in one user block field” (Liu ¶ 0035-0036) and “Each group of spatial streams is modulated and encoded by using a different MCS. The unequal MCS allocation is communicated to the STA by identifying the STA in multiple user fields in a packet preamble, each corresponding to a respectively MCS and the corresponding group of spatial streams” (Liu ¶ 0007); transmit, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more first bits of a first service data unit to the first receiver wireless device via a first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a first resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a first MCS of the plurality of different MCSs: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049); and transmit, in accordance with the control signaling, one or more second bits, of the first service data unit or of a second service data unit, to the first receiver wireless device via a second spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or via a second resource unit of the plurality of resource units using a second MCS of the plurality of different MCSs, wherein the first MCS is different from the second MCS: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049).
Liu does not teach: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units.
Regarding Claim 30, Huang teaches: the single user specific field includes a plurality of bits to indicate each respective MCS of the plurality of MCSs being applied to a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or to a respective resource unit of the plurality of recourse units: “The user-specific field 2450 comprises a plurality of BCC (Binary Convolutional Coding) blocks 2460. Each of the BCC blocks 2460 except the last BCC block 2460-N comprises a first user-specific subfield, a second user-specific subfield, a CRC subfield and a tail bits subfield. The last BCC block 2460-N may comprise a single user-specific subfield. Each of user-specific subfields in the user-specific field 2450 carries per-user allocation information (e.g., STA identifier for addressing and the information necessary for decoding the PPDU 100 such as the number of spatial streams and modulation and coding scheme, etc).” (Huang ¶ 0141).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the disclosure of Liu with Huang for the purpose of enabling load balancing between HE-SIG-B1 and HE-SIG-B2. According to Huang: “By distributing resource assignment indications between the HE-SIG-B1 and the HE-SIG-B2, data amount of the HE-SIG-B1 and data amount of the HE-SIG-B2 become similar in size, thus improving padding efficiency in the HE-SIG-B field” (Huang ¶ 0136).
Claims 6, 10, 12, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu and Huang as applied to claims 1 and 20 above, and further in view of Choi et al. (US 2018/0131553), hereinafter Choi.
Regarding Claim 6, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the single user specific field has a fixed size.
Regarding Claim 6, Choi teaches: the single user specific field has a fixed size: “An embodiment of the present disclosure proposes a technique in which each encoded field is set to be the same size, regardless of whether OFDM or MIMO scheme is used, when configuring a user-specific field for each user (i.e., User #1 to User #6)” (Choi ¶ 0143).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Choi for the purpose of improving HE PPDU signals. According to Choi: “In the embodiment, an improved technique is provided, which is associated with a signal (alternatively, a control information field) used for the data field of the PPDU. The signal provided in the embodiment may be applied onto high efficiency PPDU (HE PPDU) according to an IEEE 802.11ax standard. That is, the signal improved in the embodiment may be HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU” (Choi ¶ 0051).
Regarding Claim 10, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein the control signaling comprises a set of user information fields including the single user specific field: “Alternatively, the “AID12” field 222 uses a different AID of the STA in each user information field. The “MCS” field 223 contains one of the MCSs assigned to the STA. The “SS allocation” field 221 specifies a group of spatial streams for encoding by using the specified MCS as in field 223” (Liu ¶ 0043).
Liu and Huang do not teach: the at least one processor is configured to: encode respective subsets of the set of user information fields using respective code blocks based at least in part on a quantity of bits in each respective user information field satisfying a bit quantity threshold, wherein a given subset of the set of user information fields comprises a quantity of bits less than or equal to a size of a corresponding code block.
Regarding Claim 10, Choi teaches: the at least one processor is configured to: encode respective subsets of the set of user information fields using respective code blocks based at least in part on a quantity of bits in each respective user information field satisfying a bit quantity threshold: “the information size (IS) before application of MCS may be independently/individually set for the blocks (e.g., HE-SIG-B blocks) in the second signal field that are configured independently (i.e., individually) for each user. That is, when different RUs are used, the information size (IS) may be individually set . . . Specifically, information sizes (IS) may be allocated in two types of tone units: 26 tone units (i.e., 1×26, 2×26, and 4×26+4=108 tone units) and 242 tone units (i.e., 1×242 and 2×242 tone units). Moreover, more than two information sizes (IS) may be used. For example, {1×26, 2×26} may be classified as a first group, {4×26+4=108} may be classified as a second group, and {1×242, 2×242} may be classified as a third group” (Choi ¶ 0170 and 0172), wherein a given subset of the set of user information fields comprises a quantity of bits less than or equal to a size of a corresponding code block: “Secondly, this information may indicate the number of OFDM symbols. An encoding block may be defined by a fixed size of a 1/4 OFDM symbol (e.g., MCS3), 1/2 OFDM symbol (e.g., MCS1), 1 OFDM symbol (e.g., MCS0), or 2 OFDM symbols. OFDM symbol-based forming is a configuration that takes the process/performance of a Viterbi decoder and blind decoding complexity into account” (Choi ¶ 0128), or in other words the encoding blocks are defined by fixed sizes which requires that the number of bits comprising user information fields are less than the size of the code blocks used to encode them.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Choi for the purpose of improving HE PPDU signals. According to Choi: “In the embodiment, an improved technique is provided, which is associated with a signal (alternatively, a control information field) used for the data field of the PPDU. The signal provided in the embodiment may be applied onto high efficiency PPDU (HE PPDU) according to an IEEE 802.11ax standard. That is, the signal improved in the embodiment may be HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU” (Choi ¶ 0051).
Regarding Claim 12, Liu teaches: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: encode a set of bits of the first service data unit using a same code rate: “At 305, a bit in each user block field is set to indicate whether the present user block field is followed by one or more user block field associated with the same STA. At 306, a particular bit in the HE-SIG-A field of the PPDU preamble is set to indicate that one STA is assigned with multiple MCSs, or the group-based unequal MCS assignment scheme. At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0049), map, via a stream parser, the one or more first bits to the first spatial stream and the one or more second bits to the second spatial stream: “At 307, the information directed to the STA is modulated and encoded by using the multiple unequal MCSs based on the spatial stream grouping” (Liu ¶ 0043).
Liu and Huang do not teach: a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits be proportional to a first modulation size of the first MCS, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size of the second MCS.
Regarding Claim 12, Choi teaches: a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits be proportional to a first modulation size of the first MCS, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size of the second MCS: “the information size (IS) before application of MCS may be independently/individually set for the blocks (e.g., HE-SIG-B blocks) in the second signal field that are configured independently (i.e., individually) for each user. That is, when different RUs are used, the information size (IS) may be individually set . . . Specifically, information sizes (IS) may be allocated in two types of tone units: 26 tone units (i.e., 1×26, 2×26, and 4×26+4=108 tone units) and 242 tone units (i.e., 1×242 and 2×242 tone units). Moreover, more than two information sizes (IS) may be used. For example, {1×26, 2×26} may be classified as a first group, {4×26+4=108} may be classified as a second group, and {1×242, 2×242} may be classified as a third group” (Choi ¶ 0170 and 0172).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Choi for the purpose of improving HE PPDU signals. According to Choi: “In the embodiment, an improved technique is provided, which is associated with a signal (alternatively, a control information field) used for the data field of the PPDU. The signal provided in the embodiment may be applied onto high efficiency PPDU (HE PPDU) according to an IEEE 802.11ax standard. That is, the signal improved in the embodiment may be HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU” (Choi ¶ 0051).
Regarding Claim 25, Liu and Huang teach: The method of claim 20.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the single user specific field has a fixed size.
Regarding Claim 25, Choi teaches: the single user specific field has a fixed size: “An embodiment of the present disclosure proposes a technique in which each encoded field is set to be the same size, regardless of whether OFDM or MIMO scheme is used, when configuring a user-specific field for each user (i.e., User #1 to User #6)” (Choi ¶ 0143).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Choi for the purpose of improving HE PPDU signals. According to Choi: “In the embodiment, an improved technique is provided, which is associated with a signal (alternatively, a control information field) used for the data field of the PPDU. The signal provided in the embodiment may be applied onto high efficiency PPDU (HE PPDU) according to an IEEE 802.11ax standard. That is, the signal improved in the embodiment may be HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU” (Choi ¶ 0051).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu and Huang as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Song et al. (US 2024/0283561), hereinafter Song.
Regarding Claim 11, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: a bit size of the control signaling is based at least in part on the control signaling comprising the indication of the respective MCS per spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or per resource unit of the plurality of resource units.
Regarding Claim 11, Song teaches: a bit size of the control signaling is based at least in part on the control signaling comprising the indication of the respective MCS per spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams or per resource unit of the plurality of resource units: “the common field 404 may include a spatial reuse field (4 bits), a guard interval plus long training field (GI+LTF) size field (2 bits) . . . a MCS field (6 bits, e.g., defining the MCS for the addressed STA)” (Song ¶ 0063).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Song for the purpose of enabling unequal modulation in MU-MIMO transmissions. According to Song: “In one or more embodiments, a new UHR-SIG field is defined and designed to enable unequal modulation and newly added MCSs with a relatively low complexity and overhead for SU transmissions in UHR/802.11bn/Wi-Fi 8 systems” (Song ¶ 0019).
Claims 7, 13, 15-17, 19, and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu and Huang as applied to claims 1 and 20 above, and further in view of Lomayev et al. (US 2020/0322008), hereinafter Lomayev.
Regarding Claim 7, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream, each respective spatial stream is ordered in accordance with a non-increasing order of a respective code rate associated with the corresponding respective MCS, the single user specific field indicates the first MCS for the first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams and a respective differential value for each other spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams, each respective differential value indicates an MCS relative to an MCS associated with an adjacent stream, and the first MCS is associated with a highest code rate or lowest code rate of the respective MCSs.
Regarding Claim 7, Lomayev teaches: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream: “the EDMG Header field may include a base MCS subfield to indicate a base MCS, and one or more differential MCS subfields corresponding to one or more spatial streams” (Lomayev ¶ 0584), each respective spatial stream is ordered in accordance with a non-increasing order of a respective code rate associated with the corresponding respective MCS: “For example, according to a horizontal approach, an encoding scheme may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, if the encoding scheme includes independently encoding different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after a stream parser, for example, by different and/or independent encoders, e.g., LDPC encoders” (Lomayev ¶ 0455 and Table 9 below), the single user specific field indicates the first MCS for the first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams and a respective differential value for each other spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams: “Base MCS: Indicates the lowest index of the modulation and coding scheme that is used to define the modulation and coding scheme of the spatial streams” (Lomayev Table 9), each respective differential value indicates an MCS relative to an MCS associated with an adjacent stream, and the first MCS is associated with a highest code rate or lowest code rate of the respective MCSs: “Each of these differential MCS EDMG- subfields is set as follows: 0: indicates the same MCS as the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 1: indicates one higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 2: indicates two higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 3: indicates three higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate . . . If the MCS indicated by the value of the Base MCS subfield has a code rate of 1/2, then a code rate of 5/8 shall be used for any differential MCS that indicates 64-QAM modulation” (Lomayev Table 9).
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 13, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the at least one processor is configured to: encode, using a plurality of encoders associated with the plurality of spatial streams, a set of bits of the first service data unit, wherein: the one or more first bits is encoded using a first encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the first spatial stream, the one or more second bits is encoded using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the second spatial stream, a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits is proportional to a first modulation size and a first code rate of the first MCS, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size and a second code rate of the second MCS.
Regarding Claim 13, Lomayev teaches: the at least one processor is configured to: encode, using a plurality of encoders associated with the plurality of spatial streams, a set of bits of the first service data unit: “an LDPC encoder, e.g., LDPC encoder 704 (FIG. 7) and/or LDPC encoder 804 (FIG. 8), may be configured to encode an EDMG OFDM PSDU” (Lomayev ¶ 0513), wherein: the one or more first bits is encoded using a first encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the first spatial stream, the one or more second bits is encoded using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the second spatial stream: “the encoding scheme of FIG. 3 may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, since different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after the stream parser may be encoded independently, e.g., by different and/or independent LDPC encoder” (Lomayev ¶ 0162), a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits is proportional to a first modulation size and a first code rate of the first MCS: “the transmitter wireless device is configured to cause the EDMG STA to scramble the data bits of the PSDU for the user using a scrambler sequence, to scramble the scrambled data bits concatenated with the plurality of data pad zero bits for the user using a first continuation of the scramble sequence” (Lomayev ¶ 0636), and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size and a second code rate of the second MCS: “In some demonstrative embodiments, an EDMG LDPC encoding, which may be configured to employ codeword lengths of L.sub.CW=624, 672, 1248, and/or 1344, and/or code rates of R=½, ⅝, ¾, 13/16, and/or ⅞, may be implemented, e.g., as described below.” (Lomayev ¶ 0524).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 15, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the at least one processor is configured to: encode a set of bits of the first service data unit using a same code rate; and map, via a resource unit parser, the one or more first bits to the first resource unit and the one or more second bits to the second resource unit, wherein: a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits be proportional to a first modulation size of the first MCS and a first size of the first resource unit, the first resource unit associated with a first tone mapper, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size of the second MCS a second size of the second resource unit, the second resource unit associated with a second tone mapper.
Regarding Claim 15, Lomayev teaches: the at least one processor is configured to: encode a set of bits of the first service data unit using a same code rate: “the apparatus is configured to cause the EDMG STA to scramble the data bits of the PSDU for the user using a scrambler sequence, to scramble the scrambled data bits concatenated with the plurality of data pad zero bits for the user using a first continuation of the scramble sequence” (Lomayev ¶ 0636); and map, via a resource unit parser, the one or more first bits to the first resource unit and the one or more second bits to the second resource unit: “The first group of bits comes to the first spatial stream, the second group of bits comes to the second spatial stream, and so on. The procedure may be repeated, for example, when the maximum number of spatial streams N.sub.SS i.sub.user is reached. The procedure end, for example, when all PSDU encoded bits including N.sub.SYM_PAD i.sub.user pad bits are distributed over the N.sub.SS i.sub.user spatial streams” (Lomayev ¶ 0285), wherein: a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits be proportional to a first modulation size of the first MCS and a first size of the first resource unit, the first resource unit associated with a first tone mapper: “the method may include distributing the encoded and padded bits for the user to the one or more spatial streams for the user. For example, controller 124 (FIG. 1) may be configured to cause, trigger, and/or control device 102 (FIG. 1) to distribute the encoded and padded bits for the user to the one or more spatial streams for the user” (Lomayev ¶ 0626), and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size of the second MCS a second size of the second resource unit, the second resource unit associated with a second tone mapper: “the encoding scheme of FIG. 3 may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, since different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after the stream parser may be encoded independently, e.g., by different and/or independent LDPC encoder” (Lomayev ¶ 0162).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 16, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the at least one processor is configured to: encode, using a plurality of encoders associated with the plurality of resource units, a set of bits of the first service data unit, wherein: the one or more first bits is encoded using a first encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the first resource unit, the first resource unit associated with a first tone mapper, the one or more second bits is encoded using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the second resource unit, the second resource unit associated with a second tone mapper, a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits is proportional to a first modulation size, a first code rate of the first MCS, and a first size of the first resource unit, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size, a second code rate of the second MCS, and a second size of the second resource unit.
Regarding Claim 16, Lomayev teaches: the at least one processor is configured to: encode, using a plurality of encoders associated with the plurality of resource units, a set of bits of the first service data unit: “an LDPC encoder, e.g., LDPC encoder 704 (FIG. 7) and/or LDPC encoder 804 (FIG. 8), may be configured to encode an EDMG OFDM PSDU” (Lomayev ¶ 0513), wherein: the one or more first bits is encoded using a first encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the first resource unit, the first resource unit associated with a first tone mapper: “the method may include distributing the encoded and padded bits for the user to the one or more spatial streams for the user. For example, controller 124 (FIG. 1) may be configured to cause, trigger, and/or control device 102 (FIG. 1) to distribute the encoded and padded bits for the user to the one or more spatial streams for the user” (Lomayev ¶ 0626), the one or more second bits is encoded using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders associated with the second resource unit, the second resource unit associated with a second tone mapper: “the encoding scheme of FIG. 3 may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, since different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after the stream parser may be encoded independently, e.g., by different and/or independent LDPC encoder” (Lomayev ¶ 0162), a first quantity of bits in the one or more first bits is proportional to a first modulation size, a first code rate of the first MCS, and a first size of the first resource unit, and a second quantity of bits in the one or more second bits is proportional to a second modulation size, a second code rate of the second MCS, and a second size of the second resource unit: “In some demonstrative embodiments, an EDMG LDPC encoding, which may be configured to employ codeword lengths of L.sub.CW=624, 672, 1248, and/or 1344, and/or code rates of R=½, ⅝, ¾, 13/16, and/or ⅞, may be implemented, e.g., as described below.” (Lomayev ¶ 0524).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 17, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the transmitter wireless device transmits the second service data unit in addition to the first service data unit, and the at least one processor is configured to: encode the first service data unit using a first encoder of a plurality of encoders and the second service data unit using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders, wherein each of the plurality of encoders is associated with a respective spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams and the respective MCS associated with the respective spatial stream.
Regarding Claim 17, Lomayev teaches: : the transmitter wireless device transmits the second service data unit in addition to the first service data unit: “As indicated at block 908, the method may include transmitting the EDMG PPDU in a transmission over a channel bandwidth in a frequency band above 45 GHz, the transmission based on the one or more spatial streams for the user. For example, controller 124 (FIG. 1) may be configured to cause, trigger, and/or control device 102 (FIG. 1) to transmit the EDMG PPDU in the transmission over the channel bandwidth in the frequency band above 45 GHz” (Lomayev ¶ 0627), and the at least one processor is configured to: encode the first service data unit using a first encoder of a plurality of encoders and the second service data unit using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders: “The first group of bits comes to the first spatial stream, the second group of bits comes to the second spatial stream, and so on. The procedure may be repeated, for example, when the maximum number of spatial streams N.sub.SS i.sub.user is reached. The procedure end, for example, when all PSDU encoded bits including N.sub.SYM_PAD i.sub.user pad bits are distributed over the N.sub.SS i.sub.user spatial streams” (Lomayev ¶ 0285), wherein each of the plurality of encoders is associated with a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units and the respective MCS associated with the respective resource unit, and each of respective resource unit is associated with a respective spatial stream: “the encoding scheme of FIG. 3 may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, since different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after the stream parser may be encoded independently, e.g., by different and/or independent LDPC encoder” (Lomayev ¶ 0162).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 19, Liu and Huang teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 1.
Liu and Huang do not teach: the transmitter wireless device transmits the second service data unit in addition to the first service data unit, the at least one processor is configured to: encode the first service data unit using a first encoder of a plurality of encoders and the second service data unit using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders, wherein: each of the plurality of encoders is associated with a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units and the respective MCS associated with the respective resource unit, and each of respective resource unit is associated with a respective tone mapper.
Regarding Claim 19, Lomayev teaches: the transmitter wireless device transmits the second service data unit in addition to the first service data unit: “As indicated at block 908, the method may include transmitting the EDMG PPDU in a transmission over a channel bandwidth in a frequency band above 45 GHz, the transmission based on the one or more spatial streams for the user. For example, controller 124 (FIG. 1) may be configured to cause, trigger, and/or control device 102 (FIG. 1) to transmit the EDMG PPDU in the transmission over the channel bandwidth in the frequency band above 45 GHz” (Lomayev ¶ 0627), the at least one processor is configured to: encode the first service data unit using a first encoder of a plurality of encoders and the second service data unit using a second encoder of the plurality of encoders: “The first group of bits comes to the first spatial stream, the second group of bits comes to the second spatial stream, and so on. The procedure may be repeated, for example, when the maximum number of spatial streams N.sub.SS i.sub.user is reached. The procedure end, for example, when all PSDU encoded bits including N.sub.SYM_PAD i.sub.user pad bits are distributed over the N.sub.SS i.sub.user spatial streams” (Lomayev ¶ 0285), wherein: each of the plurality of encoders is associated with a respective resource unit of the plurality of resource units and the respective MCS associated with the respective resource unit, and each of respective resource unit is associated with a respective tone mapper: “the encoding scheme of FIG. 3 may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, since different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after the stream parser may be encoded independently, e.g., by different and/or independent LDPC encoder” (Lomayev ¶ 0162).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Regarding Claim 26, Liu and Huang teach: The method of claim 20.
Liu and Huang do not teach: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream, each respective spatial stream is ordered in accordance with a non-increasing order of a respective code rate associated with the corresponding respective MCS, the single user specific field indicates the first MCS for the first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams and a respective differential value for each other spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams, each respective differential value indicates an MCS relative to an MCS associated with an adjacent stream, and the first MCS is associated with a highest code rate or lowest code rate of the respective MCSs.
Regarding Claim 26, Lomayev teaches: each respective MCS corresponds to a respective spatial stream: “the EDMG Header field may include a base MCS subfield to indicate a base MCS, and one or more differential MCS subfields corresponding to one or more spatial streams” (Lomayev ¶ 0584), each respective spatial stream is ordered in accordance with a non-increasing order of a respective code rate associated with the corresponding respective MCS: “For example, according to a horizontal approach, an encoding scheme may be referred to as a horizontal MIMO encoding scheme, for example, if the encoding scheme includes independently encoding different streams, e.g., groups of bits, after a stream parser, for example, by different and/or independent encoders, e.g., LDPC encoders” (Lomayev ¶ 0455 and Table 9 below), the single user specific field indicates the first MCS for the first spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams and a respective differential value for each other spatial stream of the plurality of spatial streams: “Base MCS: Indicates the lowest index of the modulation and coding scheme that is used to define the modulation and coding scheme of the spatial streams” (Lomayev Table 9), each respective differential value indicates an MCS relative to an MCS associated with an adjacent stream, and the first MCS is associated with a highest code rate or lowest code rate of the respective MCSs: “Each of these differential MCS EDMG- subfields is set as follows: 0: indicates the same MCS as the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 1: indicates one higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 2: indicates two higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate. 3: indicates three higher order modulation than the Base MCS subfield with the same code rate . . . If the MCS indicated by the value of the Base MCS subfield has a code rate of 1/2, then a code rate of 5/8 shall be used for any differential MCS that indicates 64-QAM modulation” (Lomayev Table 9).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Liu and Huang with Lomayev for the purpose of improving data rates. According to Lomayev: “Some demonstrative embodiments may enable, for example, to significantly increase the data transmission rates defined in the IEEE 802.11ad Specification, for example, from 7 Gigabit per second (Gbps), e.g., up to 30 Gbps, or to any other data rate, which may, for example, satisfy growing demand in network capacity for new coming applications” (Lomayev ¶ 0100).
Claims 14 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu, Huang, and Lomayev as applied to claims 13 and 17 above, and further in view of Suh et al. (US 2021/0288752), hereinafter Suh.
Regarding Claim 14, Liu, Huang, and Lomayev tech: The transmitter wireless device of claim 13.
Liu, Huang, and Lomayev do not tech: MCSs of the plurality of different MCSs that have a same code rate are associated with a same encoder of the plurality of encoders.
Regarding Claim 14, Suh teaches: MCSs of the plurality of different MCSs that have a same code rate are associated with a same encoder of the plurality of encoders: “the common BCC encoder is configured to change a puncturing pattern within the data of a single OFDM symbol to enable the corresponding code rate indicated by the respective MCS for each RU” (Suh ¶ 0058).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Liu, Huang, and Lomayev with Suh for the purpose of alleviating interference between subcarriers in multi-RU applications. According to Suh: “it is desirable to provide a system that can optimize channel efficiency and alleviate interference between subcarriers in multi-RU applications” (Suh ¶ 0009).
Regarding Claim 18, Liu, Huang, and Lomayev teach: The transmitter wireless device of claim 17.
Liu, Huang, and Lomayev do not teach: MCSs of the plurality of different MCSs that have a same code rate are associated with a same encoder of the plurality of encoders.
Regarding Claim 18, Suh teaches: MCSs of the plurality of different MCSs that have a same code rate are associated with a same encoder of the plurality of encoders: “the common BCC encoder is configured to change a puncturing pattern within the data of a single OFDM symbol to enable the corresponding code rate indicated by the respective MCS for each RU” (Suh ¶ 0058).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Liu, Huang, and Lomayev with Suh for the purpose of alleviating interference between subcarriers in multi-RU applications. According to Suh: “it is desirable to provide a system that can optimize channel efficiency and alleviate interference between subcarriers in multi-RU applications” (Suh ¶ 0009).
Conclusion
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/BRADLEY D LYTLE JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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