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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 04/16/2026 has been entered.
Claim 1, 14 and 15 have been amended.
Claim 3 and 17 have been canceled.
Claims 21-22 have been added.
Claims 1-2, 4-16 and 18-22 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-2, 4-16 and 18-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2, 4, 13-16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Huang et al. (US 20210367872 A1) in view of Patil et al. (US 20190215884 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Huang teaches an electronic device (Access point 102 of Figs. 1 and 7), comprising:
an antenna node (transceiver 710) configured to communicatively couple to an antenna (antenna 701); and interface circuitry communicatively coupled to the antenna node (communication circuitry 702), wherein the interface circuitry is configured to:
associate with a second electronic device in a wireless local area network (WLAN)( the connection between a non-AP STA and an AP is called STA association. The connection between a non-AP MLD and an AP MLD is called MLD association after a multi-link setup after non-AP MLD and AP MLD, [0089] and Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality, [0127]), wherein, while associating with the second electronic device (an MLD privacy system may facilitate the proposal for the non-AP MLD to change an individual STA MAC address after association with an AP MLD, [0091]), the interface circuitry is configured to receive, from the second electronic device, an association identifier (AID) corresponding to the electronic device for use when communicating frames in the WLAN (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]); and
while associated with the second electronic device, obtain a second AID corresponding to the electronic device for use when communicating second frames in the WLAN (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]; The response frame may include the new AID if the request frame is sent by non-AP MLD so that the AID of the non-AP MLD can be updated, [0098]);, wherein the associating comprises replacing the AID with the second AID (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]; Other fields like association identification (AID), sequence number (SN), pseudorandom number (PN), scrambler seed will then also be changed accordingly to make tracking while establishing a connection or after establishing a connection much harder, [0034]).
However, Huang does not clearly teach and wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID.
In an analogous art, Patil teaches wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID (AP 105-d may transmit an indication of the identified AID on the given secondary channel during a first time interval of the channel rotation schedule and may transmit the indication of the identified AID on another secondary channel during a second time interval of the channel rotation schedule. That is, AP 105-d (e.g., or some other network entity) may define one (1) new AID value and round-robin the new broadcast RU allocation between all (or a subset of) supported channels, [0221]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang with the AID time interval of Patil to provide a method for reduced power consumption at the STA, reduced communication load on the primary channel, and/or higher flexibility of resource allocation in the wireless system as suggested, Patil [0006].
Regarding claim 2, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the second electronic device comprises an access point (AP 102 of Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 4, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 1, wherein, while associating with the second electronic device, the predefined set of AIDs is received from the second electronic device (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD does not allocate AID in the range to other STAs or non-AP MLDs that do not want to change MAC address. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range. For example, AID range 100 to 103, and a permutation (3,4,1,2) means AID change like the following 100.fwdarw.102, 101.fwdarw.103, 102.fwdarw.100, 103.fwdarw.101, [0100]).
Regarding claim 13, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 1, wherein obtaining the second AID comprises: selecting the second AID from a predefined set of AIDs (AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range. For example, AID range 100 to 103, and a permutation (3,4,1,2) means AID change like the following 100.fwdarw.102, 101.fwdarw.103, 102.fwdarw.100, 103.fwdarw.101, [0100]); or receiving, from the second electronic device, the second AID (The response frame may include the new AID if the request frame is sent by non-AP MLD so that the AID of the non-AP MLD can be updated, [0098]).
Regarding claim 14, Huang teaches a method for obtaining a second association identifier (AID) corresponding to an electronic device (method of Figs 3-6), comprising:
by an electronic device: associating with a second electronic device in a wireless local area network (WLAN) )( the connection between a non-AP STA and an AP is called STA association. The connection between a non-AP MLD and an AP MLD is called MLD association after a multi-link setup after non-AP MLD and AP MLD, [0089] and Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality, [0127]), wherein, while associating with the second electronic device (an MLD privacy system may facilitate the proposal for the non-AP MLD to change an individual STA MAC address after association with an AP MLD, [0091]), the electronic device receives, from the second electronic device, an AID corresponding to the electronic device for use when communicating frames in the WLAN (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]); and while associated with the second electronic device, obtaining the second AID corresponding to the electronic device for use when communicating second frames in the WLAN (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame, [0100]; The response frame may include the new AID if the request frame is sent by non-AP MLD so that the AID of the non-AP MLD can be updated, [0098]), wherein the associating comprises replacing the AID with the second AID (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]; Other fields like association identification (AID), sequence number (SN), pseudorandom number (PN), scrambler seed will then also be changed accordingly to make tracking while establishing a connection or after establishing a connection much harder, [0034]).
However, Huang does not clearly teach and wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID.
In an analogous art, Patil teaches wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID (AP 105-d may transmit an indication of the identified AID on the given secondary channel during a first time interval of the channel rotation schedule and may transmit the indication of the identified AID on another secondary channel during a second time interval of the channel rotation schedule. That is, AP 105-d (e.g., or some other network entity) may define one (1) new AID value and round-robin the new broadcast RU allocation between all (or a subset of) supported channels, [0221]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang with the AID time interval of Patil to provide a method for reduced power consumption at the STA, reduced communication load on the primary channel, and/or higher flexibility of resource allocation in the wireless system as suggested, Patil [0006].
Regarding claim 15, Huang teaches an electronic device (Access point 102 of Figs. 1 and 7), comprising:
an antenna node (transceiver 710) configured to communicatively couple to an antenna (antenna 701); and interface circuitry communicatively coupled to the antenna node (communication circuitry 702), wherein the interface circuitry is configured to:
associate with a second electronic device in a wireless local area network (WLAN) )(the connection between a non-AP STA and an AP is called STA association. The connection between a non-AP MLD and an AP MLD is called MLD association after a multi-link setup after non-AP MLD and AP MLD, [0089] and Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality, [0127]), wherein, while associating with the second electronic device (an MLD privacy system may facilitate the proposal for the non-AP MLD to change an individual STA MAC address after association with an AP MLD, [0091]), the interface circuitry is configured to provide, addressed to the second electronic device, an association identifier (AID) corresponding to the second electronic device for use when communicating frames in the WLAN (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]); and while associated with the second electronic device, provide, addressed to the second electronic device, a second AID corresponding to the second electronic device for use when communicating second frames in the WLAN (The response frame may include the new AID if the request frame is sent by non-AP MLD so that the AID of the non-AP MLD can be updated, [0098]), wherein the associating comprises replacing the AID with the second AID (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range, [0100]; Other fields like association identification (AID), sequence number (SN), pseudorandom number (PN), scrambler seed will then also be changed accordingly to make tracking while establishing a connection or after establishing a connection much harder, [0034]).
However, Huang does not clearly teach and wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID.
In an analogous art, Patil teaches wherein the second AID is obtained a predetermined time interval following the receiving of the AID (AP 105-d may transmit an indication of the identified AID on the given secondary channel during a first time interval of the channel rotation schedule and may transmit the indication of the identified AID on another secondary channel during a second time interval of the channel rotation schedule. That is, AP 105-d (e.g., or some other network entity) may define one (1) new AID value and round-robin the new broadcast RU allocation between all (or a subset of) supported channels, [0221]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang with the AID time interval of Patil to provide a method for reduced power consumption at the STA, reduced communication load on the primary channel, and/or higher flexibility of resource allocation in the wireless system as suggested, Patil [0006].
Regarding claim 16, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 15, wherein the electronic device comprises an access point (AP 102 of Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 18, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 15, wherein providing the AID comprises providing a predefined set of AIDs (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD does not allocate AID in the range to other STAs or non-AP MLDs that do not want to change MAC address. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range. For example, AID range 100 to 103, and a permutation (3,4,1,2) means AID change like the following 100.fwdarw.102, 101.fwdarw.103, 102.fwdarw.100, 103.fwdarw.101, [0100]).
Claims 5-12 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang in view of Patil and further in view of Gan et al. (US 20230110142 A1).
Regarding claim 5, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 1, wherein the current AID comprises the AID or the second AID (The response frame may include the new AID if the request frame is sent by non-AP MLD so that the AID of the non-AP MLD can be updated, Huang [0098]).
However, Huang and Patil do not clearly teach wherein the interface circuitry is configured to obfuscate a current AID used by the electronic device when communicating the frames or the second frames.
In an analogous art, Gan teaches wherein the interface circuitry is configured to obfuscate a current AID used by the electronic device when communicating the frames or the second frames (AIDs of all the APs in the AP MLD on a link l are continuously allocated by using an AID xl as a start. The AID xl is pre-defined. Correspondingly, allocation of the AIDs of all the APs in the AP MLD on the link l ends by using an AID yl as an end, [0281]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 6, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 5, wherein the obfuscation is performed by adding a value associated with the second electronic device to the current AID (AIDs of all the APs in the AP MLD on a link l are continuously allocated by using an AID xl as a start. The AID xl is pre-defined. Correspondingly, allocation of the AIDs of all the APs in the AP MLD on the link l ends by using an AID yl as an end, Gan [0281]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 7, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 6, wherein the value is changed in accordance with a second time interval (AP MLD and non-AP MLD agrees on AID change in a specific range. AP MLD indicates the range through a protected management frame. AP MLD does not allocate AID in the range to other STAs or non-AP MLDs that do not want to change MAC address. AP MLD can indicate a seed for each non-AP MLD to generate a sequence of AID permutations in the specific range. For example, AID range 100 to 103, and a permutation (3,4,1,2) means AID change like the following 100.fwdarw.102, 101.fwdarw.103, 102.fwdarw.100, 103.fwdarw.101, Huang [0100]).
Regarding claim 8, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 7, wherein the second time interval comprises a beacon interval of the second electronic device (The agreed time may be the following delivery traffic indication map (DTIM) target beacon transmission time (TBTT) or just TBTT, Huang [0098]).
Regarding claim 9, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 5, wherein the frames or the second frames indicate that the current AID is obfuscated (one piece of association identifier configuration information is used to indicate an association identifier corresponding to each AP on one link, Gan [0267]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 10, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 5, wherein the electronic device comprises a non-access point multi-link device (MLD) and the current AID is used for multiple links in the WLAN (Multi-link STA of Fig. 2; Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality, Huang [0127]).
Regarding claim 11, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 10, wherein the obfuscating is MLD-specific (each bit in the group addressed traffic indication information corresponds to each AP in the AP MLD based on a value of a link identifier or a MAC address of each AP in the AP MLD, Gan [0191]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 12, Huang as modified by Patil and Gan teaches the electronic device of claim 5, wherein the current AID is used for only one link in the WLAN (AIDs corresponding to a same AP in the AP MLD on different links may be different, Gan [0236]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 19, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 18.
However, Huang and Patil do not teach wherein adjacent AIDs in the predefined set of AIDs are unique relative to corresponding AIDs in another predefined set of AIDs provided by the electronic device to a third electronic device that is associated with the electronic device.
In an analogous art, Gan teaches wherein adjacent AIDs in the predefined set of AIDs are unique relative to corresponding AIDs in another predefined set of AIDs provided by the electronic device to a third electronic device that is associated with the electronic device (If AIDs corresponding to all the APs in the first AP MLD on each link are unique and uniformly allocated, an association identifier allocated to each AP in the first AP MLD is different from an association identifier allocated to a station associated with each AP, Gan [0032]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Regarding claim 20, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the electronic device of claim 15.
However, Huang and Patil do not teach wherein the interface circuitry is configured to provide, for the second electronic device, information indicating a value used in obfuscating the AID or the second AID when used to communicate the frames or the second frames, respectively.
In an analogous art, Gan teaches wherein the interface circuitry is configured to provide, for the second electronic device, information indicating a value used in obfuscating the AID or the second AID when used to communicate the frames or the second frames, respectively (one piece of association identifier configuration information is used to indicate an association identifier corresponding to each AP on one link, Gan [0267]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID configuration of Gan to provide a method to greatly improve a traffic transmission rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as suggested, Gan [0003].
Claims 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Huang et al. (US 20210367872 A1) in view of Patil et al. (US 20190215884 A1) and further in view of Nezou et al. (US 20210368561 A1) .
Regarding claim 21, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the method of claim 14.
However, Huang and Patil do not teach wherein, while associating with the second electronic device, a predefined set of AIDs is received from the second electronic device.
In an analogous art, Nezou teaches wherein, while associating with the second electronic device, a predefined set of AIDs is received from the second electronic device (The triggering station then signals (in the trigger frame) the allocation of the resource unit for direct link transmission between the source and destination triggered stations using the DiL session identifier, [0136]; the trigger frame may identify more than one destination triggered station. This may involve several subfields to store several destination AIDs, [0139]; Fig. 5c).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID selection of Nezou to provide a method to increasing bandwidth and decreasing latency requirements as suggested, Nezou [0003].
Regarding claim 22, Huang as modified by Patil teaches the method of claim 14.
However, Huang and Patil do not teach wherein obtaining the second AID comprises: selecting the second AID from a predefined set of AIDs.
In an analogous art, Nezou teaches wherein obtaining the second AID comprises: selecting the second AID from a predefined set of AIDs (Preferably, the DiL session identifier is selected by the AP from AIDs not assigned to non-AP stations during association, for instance from a range of AID values that is distinct from the range of AID values used by the AP to allocate AIDs to non-AP stations during association. As an example, the DiL session identifier may be selected from range [2008, 2044] or from a subset thereof. In a variant, available AID in the range [1, 2007] or in a subset thereof may be used, [0137]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the AID of Huang and Patil with the AID selection of Nezou to provide a method to increasing bandwidth and decreasing latency requirements as suggested, Nezou [0003].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Asterjadhi et al. (US 20160353357 A1): Systems, methods, and devices for multiple users sharing common wireless resources are disclosed. A method includes receiving a frame from one or more wireless devices on one or more channels selected from a set of wireless channels. The frame includes a pre-association identifier.
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.
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/NICOLE M LOUIS-FILS/ Examiner, Art Unit 2641
/CHARLES N APPIAH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2641
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