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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/18/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment to the claims filed on 02/18/2026 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered. Claims 1, 14 and 21 have been amended. Claim 8 remains canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Arguments/Remarks filed 01/12/2026 (hereinafter Resp.) have been fully considered as follows.
Applicant's main argument regards the proposed amendment distinguishing the amended independent claims from Nezou et al. US 20200092881 (hereinafter Nezou) in view of Kim et al., IEEE 802.11-20/1845r0;" RU Allocation Subfield Design for EHT Trigger Frame Follow up";11-Nov-2020 (hereinafter Kim) because “[t]he combination of Nezou and Kim, however, neither teaches nor suggests ‘determination of the RA-RU location within the 320 MHz bandwidth without reference to primary channel designations’” – See Resp., 10:¶5 is unpersuasive.
First, although Kim states that “[i]n 11 ax, one bit (B0) in the RU Allocation subfield in Trigger frame is used to indicate the Primary 80 MHz or Secondary 80MHz channel'” – See Slide 6, this is a statement of general knowledge in the prior art. To be sure, there is absolutely no reference to a Primary/Secondary channel allocation in the RU Allocation Subfield for 320 MHz bandwidth proposed by Kim as clearly exemplified in the Table of Slide 6, and the present application requires the channel division information comprises a 320 MHz channel division manner which is specific to IEEE 802.11be standard. Kim proposes to reuse the one bit (B0) of the RU Allocation Subfield of the Trigger Frame defined in 11 ax standard together with one bit that would extend the 11 ax RU Allocation Subfield from 8 bits to 9 bits - See Slide 5, and together create a 2 bit [X1 X0] indication for the location of the channel that the RU/MRU applies to. Therefore, there is no dependency on a primary 80MHz or 160MHz channel in Kim’s method.
Second, the arguments against Nezou and the combination of Nezou with Kim are moot as the 320MHz bandwidth allocations and absolute frequency indications are better taught by Park et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0396700 (hereinafter Park).
In sum, Applicant’s arguments are either unpersuasive or moot.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 5 and 19, dependent from Amended Claims 1 and 14, each recites the limitation "the indication information in the first user information field" when Amended Claim 1 or 14 requires that “the trigger frame carries indication information that indicates channel division information” and not “a first user information field” comprised in the trigger frame. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the limitation “the indication information in the first user information field” in Claims 5 and 19 because the rule against surplusage in claim interpretation requires that the words “the trigger frame carries indication information” placed after and in addition to the words “the trigger frame comprises a first user information field, the first user information field is used to allocate a random access-resource unit (RA-RU)” have meaning, i.e., it makes clear that “the trigger frame” and not “the first user information” carries the indication information.
The Specification discloses that: “Optionally, the bits of the indication information are located in the first user information field” – See [¶0091] i.e., all the bits encoding the “indication information” are part of the first user information field of the trigger frame. At the same time though, a one bit “channel division indication subfield is a subfield newly added to the first user information field” and “includes all . . . the bits of the indication information” – See [¶0090] and Fig. 8, showing just one (B38) “Bit including indication information.” The Specification further discloses that the same B38 is “[t]he bit location of the HE/EHT format subfield in the second user information field is B38 in the second user information field, in other words, the HE/EHT format subfield is located in the 39th bit in the second user information field” – See [¶0093], intimating that when “the bits of the indication information are located in the first user information field” then “the indication information” IS (no more than) an HE/EHT TB PPDU indication (1 bit) for the STAs as discussed in the Compendium infra. A person of ordinary skill in the art reading the Specification to understand the meaning of the language in Claims 5 and 19 could draw only one reasonable conclusion from this disclosure: that the indication information is a one-bit information located in the first user information field.
However, the Specification also discloses that beside a one bit in the first user information field that is an “information indication” bit akin to a “channel division indication,” “the other bits of the indication information may be located . . . in a common information field in the trigger frame or a third user information field” – See [¶0090] and Fig. 13, showing three locations for bits encoding the “indication information.”
A claim is indefinite when it contains words or phrases whose meaning is unclear. In re Packard, 751 F.3d 1307, 1314, 110 USPQ2d 1785, 1789 (Fed. Cir. 2014) and the scope of the claim could not be reasonably ascertained by those skilled in the art. In such cases, the claim may be rejected for lack of antecedence – See MPEP § 2173.05(e). Here, a great deal of clarity could be added just by using “the location of a/the/one bit of” instead of “a/the bit location.” In addition, Amended Claims 1 and 14 could be redrafted to avoid surplusage.
Therefore, Claims 5 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §112(b) for indefiniteness.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-7, and 9-21, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Park et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0396700 (hereinafter Park) , and further in view of IEEE 802.11-20/1935r0, Title: "Compendium of straw polls and potential changes to the Specification Framework Document Part 2," published December 10, 2020, Source: Huawei, (hereinafter the 802.11be Compendium) and contributions to IEEE 802.11be standard referenced therein.
Regarding Amended Claims 1, Park teaches in Figs 1 (a) and (b) a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that (“the technical features of the present specification described above are implemented based on the processing chip(s) 114 and 124 of FIG. 1, or implemented based on the processor(s) 111 and 121 and the memory(s) 112 and 122 of FIG. 1” – See [¶0498] and the “at least one computer readable medium including at least one computer readable medium including instructions based on being executed by at least one processor” – See [¶0499]), when executed by the at least one processor, cause the communication apparatus to:
generate a trigger frame, wherein the trigger frame comprises a first user information field (“FIG. 10 illustrates an operation based on UL-MU” whereby “a transmitting STA (e.g., an AP) may perform channel access through contending (e.g., a backoff operation), and may transmit a trigger frame 1030. . . having AIDs indicated in the trigger frame 1030”– See [¶¶0141-42] and Fig. 11 showing the common field and the user fields of a trigger frame, wherein AIDs are part of user fields; furthermore, each “control field supporting an 802.11 be wireless LAN system . . . may include a universal-signal (U-SIG) or an extremely high throughput-signal (EHT-SIG)” and “allocation information on an RU to which the data field is to be transmitted” including “a case where the RU to which the data field is transmitted is a multi-RU in which a plurality of RUs are aggregated with each other” – See [¶0466]),
the first user information field is used to allocate a random access-resource unit (RA-RU) to an unassociated extremely high-throughput station (EHT STA) (“per user information fields 1160#1 to 1160#N corresponding to the number of receiving STAs which receive the trigger frame of FIG. 11 are preferably included. The per user information field may also be called an ‘allocation field’” – See [¶0148] and Fig. 13, showing the user field with the RU allocation field, and “[a] transmitting STA (e.g., an AP) may allocate . . . resources through a trigger frame as shown in FIG. 14” wherein a first user field with “AID=2045 may imply a UORA resource for an un-associated STA” – See [¶0165] for an “UL OFDMA-based random access (UORA)” – See [¶0163]), and
the trigger frame carries indication information that indicates channel division information (“when UL-MU communication which is solicited by a trigger frame is performed, a transmitting STA (e.g., an AP) may allocate a first RU (e.g., 26/52/106/242-RU, etc.) to a first STA through the trigger frame” – See [¶0112] and Figs. 8 and 9, whereby the trigger frame is a HE-PPDU, comprising “a high efficiency-signal A (HE-SIG A), a high efficiency-signal-B (HE-SIG B)” – See [¶0100] and Fig. 4 lowest row, and “[i]nformation related to a layout of the RU may be signaled through HE-SIG-B” – See [¶0115] and FIG. 8, corresponding to Fig. 27-26, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0 Draft Standard for Information Technology; Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications; Amendment 1: Enhancements for High Efficiency WLAN, October 2020 (hereinafter IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0) at page 597-98, whereby “an HE-SIG-B field 810 includes a common field 820 and a user-specific field 830. The common field 820 may include information commonly applied to all users (i.e., user STAs) which receive SIG-B. The user-specific field 830 may be called a user-specific control field. When the SIG-B is transferred to a plurality of users, the user-specific field 830 may be applied only any one of the plurality of users” – See [¶0116]; furthermore, “[t]he common field 820 may include RU allocation information of N*8 bits” – See [¶0118] and Table 1 showing allocations of up to 180MHz; see also Table 27-24, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 598-599 describing the Common field; and “a user field related to an MU-MIMO scheme may be configured in a first format, and a user field related to a non-MIMO scheme may be configured in a second format” – See [¶0130] and Fig. 9 corresponding to Figure 27-27, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 607; see also Table 27-26, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 602-604, showing RU allocations in the common and user fields, and Tables 27-28&29, at page 608-609, describing the User field format); and
send the trigger frame to a station (“the transmitting STA may transmit a PPDU including the trigger frame 1030” – See [¶0141] and Fig. 10, and “the receiving STA may obtain information on the BW, RU allocation, and multiple RU aggregation of the EHT PPDU by decoding information included in the U-SIG or EHT-SIG” – See [¶0426], whereby “HE-SIG-A information field 1240 may include information for controlling content of a SIG-A field (i.e., HE-SIG-A field) of the uplink PPDU in response to the corresponding trigger frame” – See [¶0155] and Figs. 12-13),
wherein the channel division information comprises a 320 MHz channel division manner (“When the broadband is a 320/160+160 MHz band including first to fourth 80 MHz subchannels, the first 80 MHz subchannel includes a first 996 resource unit (RU), and the second 80 MHz subchannel includes a second 996 RU, the third 80 MHz subchannel includes a third 996 RU, and the fourth 80 MHz subchannel includes a first 484 RU” – See [¶0013] and Fig. 17 wherein “[a]lthough 20, 40, 80, and 160 MHz channels are illustrated in the example of FIG. 17, a 240 MHz channel or a 320 MHz channel may be additionally added”– See [¶0180] e.g., “[a] tone-plan for 160/240/320 MHz may be configured in such a manner that the pattern of FIG. 6 is repeated several times” – See [¶0237] and the trigger frame is identified by the STA as “as an EHT PPDU” and “the receiving STA may detect a type of the EHT PPDU (e.g., an SU/MU/ Trigger-based/Extended Range type), based on bit information included in a symbol after the RL-SIG of FIG. 18” – See [¶0239] and “indicator regarding RU aggregation may be transmitted within the EHT-SIG of the EHT PPDU of FIG. 30” – See [¶0395], i.e., the User field of a trigger frame, and “the present specification focuses on and proposes a method of aggregating large-RU in non-OFDMA transmission” – See [¶0307], e.g. “[w]hen the broadband is a 320/160+160 MHz band including first to fourth 80 MHz subchannels” and “The data field is received through first multiple RUs in which the first to third 996 RUs and the first 484 RU are aggregated” – See [¶¶0444-45]),
the first user information field further comprises a resource unit allocation subfield, and a low/high 160 MHz subfield (“a plurality or RUs may be allocated to one STA in the EHT system” – See [¶0215] e.g., “FIG. 29 shows a channel structure of 320/160+160 MHz. For the 320/160+ 160 MHz tone plan, the 80 MHz tone plan is repeated four times” – See [¶0368] and Fig. 29 showing a Primary 160 (P160) aggregated RUs/subchannels and a Secondary 160(S160) aggregated RUs/subchannels, each comprising two 80 MHz RUs/subchannels).
Park also teaches an absolute frequency indication that provides a fixed reference independent of primary channel configuration (“The 5GHz band may imply a frequency domain in which channels of which a center frequency is greater than or equal to 5 GHZ and less than 6 GHZ (or less than 5.9 GHZ) are used/supported/defined” – See [¶0173] and Fig. 16, showing the center frequency of a 160MHz subchannel whereby “5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domains/ranges may be divided into two channels through an 80 MHz frequency domain” or “may be divided into one channel through a 160 MHz frequency domain” – See [¶0175] thus the 5330 MHz frequency is an absolute frequency separating a low 160MHz channel from a high 160MHz channel, independent of which 160MHz channel comprises the primary 80MHz subchannel; furthermore, the “location of a specific RU may be expressed by a subcarrier index . . . defined in unit of a subcarrier frequency spacing” e.g., when “the subcarrier frequency spacing for the RU is 78.125 kHz . . . a subcarrier index +1 for the RU may mean a location which is more increased by 78.125 kHz than a DC tone, and a subcarrier index-I for the RU may mean a location which is more decreased by 78.125 kHz than the DC tone” – See [¶0253]; see also Table 27-25, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 600-601 showing the subcarrier ranges for subchannels covering different BWs and Table 27-9, at page 533-34 showing RU index and subcarrier index for 80 MHz HE PPDU whereby subcarrier index 0 corresponds to the DC tone(s) in the middle of the 320 MHz available bandwidth).
Park teaches that in one channel division “the broadband may include four 80 MHz subchannels” – See [¶0476] within a Primary and a Secondary 160MHz MRUs as shown in Fig. 29, whereby the “receiving STA decodes the allocation information on the first multiple RUs, it can be confirmed that the first multiple RUs are RUs allocated to itself” – See [¶0479], and “[o]ne of the first to fourth 80 MHz subchannels may be a primary 80 MHz channel, and the remaining three subchannels except for the primary 80 MHz channel may be secondary 80 MHz channels (specifically, the secondary 80 MHz channel, low 80 MHz channel of the secondary 160 MHz, high 80 MHz channel of the secondary 160 MHz). The primary 80 MHz channel and the secondary 80 MHz channel may be configured regardless of the size of the frequency” – See [¶0480], i.e., there is always a primary 80MHz subchannel, and the 160MHz MRU comprising that channel is called “Primary” because of comprising a primary channel (not vice-versa), i.e., whether the 160MHz MRU is called P/S or High/Low is a matter of indicating a primary channel not a RA-RU, as claimed here. Therefore, the 5330 MHz frequency in a 5GHz band shown in Fig. 16 or the 6095MHz frequency in the 6GHz band shown in Fig. 17 are examples of absolute frequency separating a “low” 160MHz MRU from a “high” 160MHz MRU; furthermore, considering only the 5GHz band, the central frequency of 5250MHz distinguishes between the lower 160MHz whose central frequency it is and the higher 160 MHz above the 5330MHz edge – see [¶0175] (“The 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domains/ranges may be divided into two channels through an 80 MHz frequency domain. Alternatively, the 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domains/ranges may be divided into one channel through a 160 MHz frequency domain” i.e., a center frequency of 5250MHz); see also [¶0173](“The 5GHz band may imply a frequency domain in which channels of which a center frequency is greater than or equal to 5 GHZ and less than 6 GHZ (or less than 5.9 GHZ)”) However, Park does not explicitly teach a low/high 160 MHz subfield which indicates, based on an absolute frequency, that the RA-RU is located in a low 160 MHz or a high 160 MHz in a 320 MHz bandwidth.
The Compendium1 updates the IEEE 802.11be specification framework document with contributions before the effective filing date of the present application, indicating, at page 19 that for “802.11be AP is mandatory to support the following: 160 MHz operating channel width in 6 GHz band” and “80 MHz operating channel width in 5 GHz band” and that “802.11be supports defining 320 MHz channels as any two adjacent 160 MHz channels,” i.e., when channel division information comprises a 320 MHz channel division manner with two 160 MHz channels, those channels must be adjacent, therefore separated in a low/high 160MHz channel by an absolute frequency as shown in Fings. 16-17 of Park and explained supra.
Like Park, the Compendium further teaches in §12.3, at page 102, that “802.11be reuses the Trigger Type of 802.11ax” and that the “same Trigger frame can be used to solicit the TB PPDU from both the HE STA(s) and EHT STA(s),” whereby “The fields between Common Info field and User Info field that includes the signalling [of the TB PPDU format] is TBD,” i.e., it is open to proposals from member companies about how to use the bit information carried in each field of the 802.11ax trigger frame, including B0 of the RU Allocation User Info subfield in 802.11ax trigger frame; further indicating that “802.11be has one unified RU allocation table (for both SU and MU) for the RU allocation field in the User Info field of the Trigger frame” and “[a]n AP may allocate an RA-RU to solicit a response in an EHT TB PPDU” referencing [289], IEEE 802.11-20/1192r1, Title: “TB PPDU Format Signaling in Trigger Frame,” Source: WILUS Inc. (Ko et al.), published October 14, 2020 (hereinafter Ko) teaching a method to indicate to a STA to use a EHT TB PPDU by using a special “AID12 subfield set to 4095 in the middle of User Info fields” and reusing AID12 in a later User Field to indicate the RA-RU allocation for EHT STAs – See Slide 10.
Regarding RU allocations for “an OFDMA 160 MHz EHT PPDU, and an OFDMA 320 MHz EHT PPDU,” the Compendium references, at page 29-32, [40] IEEE 802.11-20/1845r3; “RU Allocation Subfield Design for EHT Trigger Frame Follow up”, Source: Samsung (Kim et al.), published November 19, 2020 (hereinafter Kim).
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Kim discloses design aspects regarding EHT Trigger frame to support 320MHZ channels and MRUs allocated to the same STA specifically for the 160MHz RU allocation (“we proposed the 9-bit RU Allocation subfield for EHT Trigger frame so that RU allocation signaling for Trigger based UL MU transmissions can cover the supported bandwidths and MRU combinations”– See Slide 2), whereby because the “[e]xisting 8-bit RU Allocation subfield in User info field in Trigger frame does not allow indicating BW of 320MHz and multiple RU or MRU allocation information . . . we can consider the extended 9-bit RU allocation subfield” shown below wherein “2 bits of [X1 X0]: Used to indicate the location of channel that RU allocation applies” and “7 bits of [X8 - X2]: Used to indicate RU or MRU assignment” – See Slide 5;
see also IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 120-129 the format of 802.11ax trigger frame, including bits allocation to AID12, Common field and User field, stating, at page 125, that if AID12 subfield is 2045, the User Info field allocates one or more consecutive RA-RUs for unassociated STAs – See Table 9-29h, whereby the number of RA-RUs is indicated on 5 bits as shown in Figure 9-6f, at page 129; also indication, at page 126, that “the RU Allocation subfield along with the UL BW subfield in the Common Info field identifies the size and location of the RU” and at page 128 that: (1) “If there is more than one RA-RU . . . the allocated RUs are contiguous and the RU sizes of all RA-RUs are the same and equal to the size of the first RU” and (2) “If the UL BW subfield indicates 160MHz or 80+80 MHz,” i.e., broadband, “B0 is set to 1 to indicate a 2x996-tone RU”; therefore, B0 is not always used to indicate primary 80MHz channel in a case of 160MHz channels EHT/HE transmissions; cf Kim:Slide 6 (stating that “In 11ax, one bit (B0) in the RU Allocation subfield in Trigger frame is used to indicate the Primary 80MHz or Secondary 80MHz channel” which is the case for RU allocations of 20/40/80MHz, i.e., less than 160MHz, also called small RUs).
Kim further teaches the first User Info field comprises a resource unit allocation subfield (“8-bit RU Allocation subfield in User info field in Trigger frame” – See Slide 5) and a low/high 160 MHz subfield which indicates, based on an absolute frequency, that the RA-RU is located in a low 160 MHz or a high 160 MHz in a 320 MHz bandwidth (“To cover the supported bandwidth of 320 MHz in EHT, it is preferred use two bits, [X1 X0], to indicate the location of channel that RU or MRU allocation applies as follows: If the UL BW subfield indicates 320 MHz, X0 of the RU Allocation subfield is set to 0 to indicate that the RU allocation applies to the lower 160 MHz channel and set to 1 to indicate that the RU allocation applies to the upper 160 MHz channel. (Lower/Upper 160 MHz channel)” whereby, X0 is an additional 9th bit (L/U) of the RU Allocation subfield and the lower/upper 160MHz is indicated based on an absolute frequency, e.g., a center frequency for the 5GHz as taught in Park:[¶0173]
[X1 X0]
Lower 160MHz
Upper 160MHz
Lower 80MHz
Upper 80MHz
Lower 80MHz
Upper 80MHz
160MHz
[0 x]
[1 x]
-
-
320 MHz
[0 0]
[1 0]
[0 1]
[1 1]
),
in response to the low/high 160 MHz subfield indicating that the RA-RU is located in the low 160 MHz or the high 160 MHz (e.g., when the channel/UL BW is 320 MHz and the additional bit, X0, indicates the RA-RU is in one of lower or higher 160MHz channels in the table above) a first bit of the resource unit allocation subfield indicates, based on the absolute frequency, that the RA-RU is located in a low 80 MHz or a high 80 MHz of the 160 MHz indicated by the low/high 160 MHz subfield to facilitate the station determining the 80 MHz in which the RA-RU is located without knowing a location of a primary 80 MHz (“X1 of the RU Allocation subfield is set to 0 to indicate that the RU allocation applies to the lower 80 MHz channel in 160 MHz as indicated by X0 of the RU Allocation subfield and set to 1 to indicate that the RU allocation applies to the upper 80 MHz channel in 160 MHz as indicated by X0 of the RU Allocation subfield” – See Slide 6, whereby the absolute frequency is a center frequency as taught in Park),
the low/high 160 MHz subfield (e.g., the additional X0 bit supra) and the first bit of the resource unit allocation subfield (e.g., X1 which is B0 in of the RU Allocation subfield of the User Info filed of the 802.11ax trigger frame, as explained supra) together enable determination of the RA-RU location within the 320 MHz bandwidth without reference to primary channel designations (as shown in the table supra, wherein there is no designation of a primary channel; see also Slide 24, showing 9bit RU allocation subfield for 160 MHz/320 MHz UL BW with RU996+RU484, i.e., 80MHz RU sizes, wherein X0 is used to indicate the location of channel that RU or MRU allocation applies, as shown in the table supra), and
the absolute frequency indication provides a fixed reference independent of primary channel configuration, e.g., when the absolute frequency is the center frequency of the first 160MHz channel, as taught in Park Fig. 16 and explained supra.
Thus, the Compendium and Park each teaches a schematic for a RA-RU allocation in larger bandwidth channels, e.g., 320 MHz channel division with 160MHz high/low subchannels comprising 80MHz RUs ordered in a range based on absolute frequencies corresponding to the center frequency of each subchannel. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the trigger frame User Info field schematic taught by Kim, referenced by the Compendium, indicating based on 9bits the U/L 80 MHz channel in either upper or lower 160MHz subchannel of a 320MHz channel division could be used for indicating the RA-RU in the § 4.4. 320/160+160 MHz channel structure taught by Park because both apply to a compatible IEEE 802.11ax trigger frame format and center frequencies known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of simplifying the decoder of the ETH STA albeit increasing the number of bits used for the trigger frame, as taught by Kim referenced by the Compendium.
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Amended Claim 14, Park teaches a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor; and one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the communication apparatus (“the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and/or 19” wherein the features are “implemented based on the processing chip(s) 114 and 124 of FIG. 1, or implemented based on the processor(s) 111 and 121 and the memory(s) 112 and 122 of FIG. 1, or may be implemented based on the processor 610 and the memory 620 of FIG. 19” – See [¶0498]to: receive a trigger frame sent by an access point (“receiving a Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) through a broadband from a transmitting STA; and decoding the PPDU” – See [¶0500]) wherein the trigger frame has the same limitations as recited in Amended Claim 1 with the same language. Because Amended Claim 1is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium, Amended Claim 14 is also obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 2 and 16, dependent from Amended Claim 1 and 14, respectively Park further teaches the communication apparatus of claim 1 or 14 wherein the first user information field comprises a first association identifier AID12 subfield (“a first bit (i.e., B0-B10) in the user field (i.e., 21 bits) may include identification information (e.g., STA-ID, partial AID, etc.) of a user STA to which a corresponding user field is allocated” – See [¶0132])
a value of the first AID12 subfield is a first value – See, e.g., Fig. 14,
the first value, is a value that is a value of the first AID12 not allocated to an associated station (STA) or the first value, is a value that indicates that the first user information field is used to allocate the RA-RU to the unassociated EHT STA (“AID=2045 may imply a UORA resource for an un-associated STA” – See [¶0165] and Fig. 14; see also User Info field in a Trigger Frame indicating RA-RU allocations in a contiguous RA-RU set in Figure 26-4, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, at page 374)
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Therefore Claims 2 and 16 are obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 3 and 17, dependent from Amended Claim 1 and 14, respectively Kim, referenced by the Compendium, further teaches wherein bits of the indication information are located in the first user information field (“To support the larger bandwidths and MRU combinations, we can consider the extended 9-bit RU allocation subfield” – See Slide 5, whereby the first user information field may be a EHT User Info field as defined by Ko referenced by the Compendium supra).
Therefore Claim 3 and 17 are obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 4 and 18, dependent from Amended Claim 1 and 14, respectively, Park further teaches the communication apparatus of Claim 1 or Claim 14 wherein the first user information field comprises a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) subfield (“the subfield of FIG. 13 may include an MCS field 1340. The MCS field 1340 may indicate an MCS scheme applied to the TB PPDU” – See [¶0162] and Fig. 13 whereby “MCS, MCS information, an MCS index, an MCS field, or the like used in the present specification may be indicated by an index value” – See [¶0136]),
a length of the first MCS subfield is less than four bits (“Information related to a channel coding type (e.g., LCC or LDPC) may be excluded in the MCS information” – See id.; see also § 27.5, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, indicating, at page 711, that “Support for HE-MCS 8, 9, 10, and 11 is optional in all cases,” i.e., 3 bits are enough to represent MCS indices 0-7, including the case when the User Info field indicates broadband allocations)
the trigger frame further comprises a second user information field, the second user information field comprises a second MCS subfield, the second MCS subfield comprises four bits, the second user information field indicates information about a non-RA-RU STA (“Each user field may have the same size (e.g., 21 bits)” – See [¶0131] and Fig. 8, and “a third bit (i.e., B15-18) in the user field (i.e., 21 bits) may include modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information. The MCS information may be applied to a data field in a PPDU including corresponding SIG-B” – See [¶0135]).
Section 2.6.3, the Compendium, at page 51-52 describes the EHT-SIG field of an ETH PPDU as used in a control frame such as a trigger frame, as “[t]here shall be a variable MCS and variable length EHT-SIG, immediately after the U-SIG, in an EHT PPDU sent to multiple users” whereby the “EHT-SIG support the following MCSs: MCS0, MCS1, MCS3 and ‘MCS0+DCM’,” i.e., at most 5 MCS indices considering that DCM can be “0” or “1” as shown in the tables starting at page 711, § 27.5, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0 supra)
Therefore Claim 4 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 5 and 19, dependent from Amended Claim 1 and 14, respectively Park further teaches the communication apparatus of claim 1 or claim 14 wherein
the trigger frame further comprises a second user information field, the second user information field indicates information about a non-RA-RU STA (), (e.g., for HE signaling using the format illustrated on the lower row of Fig. 4, the HE-SIG-B field carries “per user information fields 1160#1 to 1160#N corresponding to the number of receiving STAs which receive the trigger frame of FIG. 11 are preferably included. The per user information field may also be called an ‘allocation field’” – See [¶0148] and Fig. 11 showing N User Info fields, whereby one is in the range 1-2007, i.e., a non-RA-RU STA, and “Information related to a layout of the RU may be signaled through HE-SIG-B” – See [¶0114] and FIG. 8 illustrating a structure of an HE-SIG-B field; for EHT signaling, “FIG. 30 shows an example of an EHT PPDU format” – See [¶0393] and Fig. 30 showing the ETH-SIG field of a control frame such as a trigger frame, “[t]he EHT-SIG of FIG. 18 may include control information for the receiving STA” – See [¶0208] an “EHT-SIG may include a technical feature of the HE-SIG-B described with reference to FIG. 8 and FIG.9” such as “a common field and a user-specific field as in the example of FIG. 8” – See [¶0209]; see also § 12.3, the Compendium, at page 102, stating “The same Trigger frame can be used to solicit the TB PPDU from both the HE STA(s) and EHT STA(s),” i.e., the same trigger frame can be used to signal both HE and EHT STAs2),
Park does not explicitly teach the second user information field comprises a “one bit” high efficiency (HE/EHT) format subfield.
Kim teaches the UL BW subfield in the Common Info can indicate support for a BW of 320MHz by adding one bit to the field – See Slide 4, hence implicitly indicating to non RA-RU STAs (addressable by Common field) a bit location of the HE/EHT format subfield in the second user information field. Therefore, in an interpretation where the trigger frame comprises the indication information, as required by Amended Claim 1 and 14, a bit location of the indication information in the first user information field (i.e., the UL BW extra bit) is the same as a bit location of the HE/EHT format subfield in the second user information field.
However, in an interpretation that violates Amended Claims 1 and 14 language (least “trigger frame carries indication information” is the same as the “first user information field” carries indication information, which is not), the combination of Park and Kim does not teach the second user information field comprises a “one bit” high efficiency (HE/EHT) format subfield and a bit location of the indication information in the first user information field is the same as a bit location of the HE/EHT format subfield in the second user information field.
Nevertheless, the Compendium discusses at page 274 new subfields for the ETH trigger frame, including “a Lower/Upper 160 MHz Segment bit in the Trigger Frame User Info Field” so that “Combining this bit with the 8-bit RU Allocation subfield provides an effective 9-bit field, which is sufficient for supporting all RUs and MRUs,” referencing IEEE 802.11-20/1429r2; Title: “Enhanced Trigger Frame for EHT Support”; Source: Qualcomm (Shellhammer et al.) , published October, 2020 (hereinafter Shellhammer) and in accord with Kim (emphasis added to underscore the lower/upper rather than primary/secondary 160MHz appellation).
Shellhammer, like Park, teaches that both ETH support and 320MHz support should be indicated in the 802.11be Trigger frame – See Slide 3 and indicates that there are “10 available reserved bits in the Common Info Field” and “2 available reserved bits in the User Info Field” that could be used for the required indication information3 – See Slide 4.
Shellhammer further teaches a user information field comprises a high efficiency (HE/EHT) format subfield (“HE/EHT Format (Reserved Bit B39) . . . to indicate to the EHT STA whether the User Info Field is the original format or the enhanced format”– See Slide 16; furthermore, because B39 is independent of the STA ID in the AID12 subfield, the EH/EHT bit indication is the same for the first and the second user information field).
Because Park already teaches a reserved bit in the User Info field (“a fourth bit (i.e., B19) in the user field (i.e., 21 bits) may be a reserved field” – See [¶0137]) in accord with § 2.6.3, the Compendium, at page 51-52, stating “The EHT-SIG . . . in an EHT PPDU sent to multiple users shall have a common field and user-specific field(s)” and, at page 53, that the “Design of the EHT-SIG User field is shown as follows:”
User field for a non-MU-MIMO allocation:
Subfield
Number of bits
STA-ID
11
MCS
4
Reserved
1
NSTS
4
Beamformed
1
Coding
1
it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art to combine the teaching of Shellhammer using the reserved bit B39 of the User Info field of an 802.11ax trigger frame as a high efficiency (HE/EHT) format subfield. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the substitution though techniques known in the art. Finally, the substitution achieves the predictable result of assuring backward compatibility for IEEE 802.11be trigger frame formats as taught in Shellhammer and the Compendium.
Therefore Claims 5 and 19 are obvious over Park, in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 6 and 20, dependent from Claims 3 and 17, respectively, Park further teaches the communication apparatus according to claim 3 or 17, wherein the first user information field comprises a trigger dependent user information subfield (“the present specification may be applied to . . . the IEEE 802.11ax standard. In addition, the present specification may also be applied to the newly proposed EHT standard or IEEE 802.11be standard” – See [¶0057] e.g., the “example of FIG. 34 may be performed in a network environment in which a next-generation wireless LAN system (e.g., IEEE 802.11 be or EHT wireless LAN system) is supported” – See [¶0438]; see also § 9.3.1.22, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, indicating in Figure 9-64d, at page 125, that the User Info field comprises a “Trigger Dependent User Info” on a variable number of bits);
However, Park does not teach and the bits of the indication information are located in the trigger dependent user information field. Nevertheless, the Compendium discusses, at page 237, the use of the reserved bit in the Trigger Dependent User Info field (“Do you agree to keep the User Info field with at least one reserved bit in the Trigger frame in R1? . . . not counting the reserved bit in the Trigger Dependent User Info field of the Basic Trigger frame”). The Compendium further references, in § 12.3, at page 102, IEEE 802.11-20/0764r2, Title: “Trigger consideration,” Source: NXP (Chu et al.) published September 2020 (hereinafter Chu) disclosing that “One available bit in Basic Trigger” exists in the Trigger Dependent User Info that could be used as indication information regarding MRU allocations and support of more than one stream per STA in EHT, in addition to B25 – See Slide 6. Because Park and the Compendium are combinable on the basis of maintaining the trigger format in 802.11ax and Chu reuses reserved/available bits in the variable length Trigger Dependent User Info as defined in IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skills in the art to use one or more available bits in the Trigger Dependent User Info for the indication information. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to apply the Chu method though techniques known in the art to the Park modified by Kim. Finally, the improvement achieves the predictable result of reusing the Basic Trigger as described in 802.11ax for the EHT enhancements of 802.11be, as taught in Chu and referenced in the Compendium.
Therefore, Claims 6 and 20 are obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claims 7, dependent from Claims 2, Park further teaches communication apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the trigger frame further comprises a third user information field (e.g., FIGs. 8-9, 11, and 14 each teaches a third User Info Field),
the third user information field comprises a second AID12 field and a first field (e.g., the RU Allocation field indicating 1 or more RUs allocated to the STA ID indicated in the AID12),
a value of the second AID12 field is a second value, the second value is different from the first value and the second value is a value that is of the AID 12 not allocated to the associated STA (e.g., “AID=0 may imply a UORA resource for an associated STA” – See [¶0165] so in Fig. 14 AID12=0 indicates an RA-RU allocation to an associated STA and is different from AID12=2045 allocated to the unassociated STA),
Therefore, Claim 7 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Park further discloses wherein the first user information field comprises a first association identifier AID12 subfield, a value of the first AID12 subfield is 2045, and the first AID12 subfield indicates that the first user information field is used to allocate the RA-RU to the unassociated EHT STA (“FIG. 14 describes a technical feature of the UORA scheme,” i.e., RA-RU allocation – See [¶0164] wherein “AID=2045 may imply a UORA resource for an un-associated STA” – See [¶0165], the AID12=2045 comprised in the first User Ifo field).
Therefore, Claim 9 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claim 10, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Park further teaches the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
the trigger frame further comprises a common information field (“As illustrated in FIG. 8, the common field 820 and the user-specific field 830 may be separately encoded” – See [¶0117] and “The common field 820 may include RU allocation information of N*8 bits” – See [¶0118], FIG. 8 & 11, and TABLE 1; also “FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a common information field of a trigger frame” – See [¶0151]),
the first user information field comprises a trigger dependent user information subfield (“A user information field 1300 of FIG. 13 may be understood as any one of the per user information fields 1160#1 to 1160#N mentioned above with reference to FIG. 11. A subfield included in the user information field 1300 of FIG. 13 may be partially omitted, and an extra subfield may be added” – See [¶0158] e.g., the Trigger Dependent User Info as defined in Figure 9-64d, at page 125, IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0)
the indication information comprises a plurality of bits (“a plurality or RUs may be allocated to one STA in the EHT system” – See [¶0215]; whereby Kim, referenced by the Compendium discloses the “2 bits of [X1 X0]: Used to indicate the location of channel that RU allocation applies” for 160MHz channels or a 320MHz bandwidth – See Slide 5, wherein X0 bit is the 9th bit that is one of the reserved bits in the User Info field for the “9-bit RU Allocation subfield considering 11ax backward compatibility for EHT Trigger frame” – See Slide 3), and
the bits of the indication information are located
a location of a reserved bit in the first user information field (at least a “bit (i.e., B19) in the user field (i.e., 21 bits) may be a reserved field” – See [¶0137] i.e., can be reused as X0 in the 9-bit RU allocation scheme of EHT trigger frame),
Furthermore, the Compendium cites at page 274 a discussion regarding “a Lower/Upper 160 MHz Segment bit in the Trigger Frame User Info Field” noting that “Combining this bit with the 8-bit RU Allocation subfield provides an effective 9-bit field, which is sufficient for supporting all RUs and MRUs. (See Backup)” referencing Shellhammer wherein Slide 4 lists “Trigger Frame – Reserved Bits” available for encoding indication information related to EHT channel division modes either in the Common Info Field or in the User Info Field or both.
Therefore, Claim 10 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claim 11, dependent from Claim 3, Park further teaches the communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
the trigger frame further comprises a third user information field (e.g., FIGs. 8-9, 11, and 14 each teaches a third User Info Field),
the third user information field comprises a second AID12 field and a first field (e.g., the RU Allocation field indicating 1 or more RUs allocated to the STA ID indicated in the AID12),
a value of the second AID12 is a second value, the second AID12 field indicates that the bits of the indication information are located in the first field (e.g., associated STA4 with AID=3 in Fig. 14 is indicated with RU=6 in the RU Allocation field, i.e., the first field), and
Therefore, Claim 11 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Park further teaches wherein the trigger frame further comprises a common information field (“an HE-SIG-B field 810 includes a common field 820 and a user-specific field 830. The common field 820 may include information commonly applied to all users (i.e., user STAs) which receive SIG-B” – See [¶0116] and Fig. 8; “A common information field 1150 includes common control information applied to the receiving STA which receives the corresponding trigger frame,” e.g., “a field indicating a length of an L-SIG field of an uplink PPDU transmitted in response to the corresponding trigger frame or information for controlling content of a SIG-A field (i.e., HE-SIG-A field) of the uplink PPDU transmitted in response to the corresponding trigger frame may be included” – See [¶0145] and Fig. 12) and
bits of the indication information are located in the common information field (“The common field 820 may include RU allocation information of N*8 bits” – See [¶0118] and “the number of STAs (e.g., user STAs) allocated to a specific channel may be determined based on the RU allocation information of the common field 820” – See [¶0125]; furthermore “A receiving STA may determine a type of an RX PPDU as the EHT PPDU . . . when a result of applying "modulo 3" to a value of a length field of the L-SIG of the RX PPDU is detected as "0". When the RX PPDU is determined as the EHT PPDU, the receiving STA may detect a type of the EHT PPDU (e.g., an SU/MU/Trigger-based/Extended Range type), based on bit information included in a symbol after the RL-SIG of FIG. 18” – See [¶0239], i.e., the length of L-SIG subfield of the Common Info field comprises bits of the indication information indicating HE/EHT TB PPDU at a receiving STA)
Therefore, Claim 12 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Claim 13, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Park further teaches wherein the channel division information comprises one or more pieces of information associated with a location of a primary 80 MHz (“When the pattern of FIG. 6 is repeated twice, 23 tones (i.e., 11 guard tones+l2 guard tones) may be configured in a DC region. That is, a tone-plan for an 80 MHz EHT PPDU allocated based on OFDMA may have 23 DC tones. Unlike this, an 80 MHz EHT PPDU allocated based on non-OFDMA (i.e., a non-OFDMA full bandwidth 80 MHz PPDU) may be configured based on a 996-RU, and may include 5 DC tones, 12 left guard tones, and 11 right guard tones” – See [¶0236] and “method of allocating and transmitting multiple RUs to one STA is considered, and in this case, a method of aggregating RUs in various band widths is proposed” – See [¶0307], e.g., an “indicator regarding RU aggregation may be transmitted within the EHT-SIG of the EHT PPDU of FIG. 30 or the U-SIG of FIG. 31” – See [¶0395] whereby the EHT “U-SIG is modulated in the same way as HE-SIG-A” of the HE trigger frame Common Info field – See [¶0397] and “The EHT-SIG can be divided into a common field and a user specific field” – See [¶0398] and “specific (RU allocation) n-bit (e.g., 8-bit) information may be included in the common field of the EHT-SIG, and information on multiple RU aggregation may be included in the user specific field” – See [¶0406] e.g., “FIG. 29 shows a channel structure of 320/160+160 MHz. For the 320/160+ 160 MHz tone plan, the 80 MHz tone plan is repeated four times” – See [¶0368])
Therefore, Claim 13 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
Regarding Amended Claim 21, it merely recites the same apparatus with the same limitations as recited in Amended Claim 1, complemented by two more limitations:
the trigger frame generated by the communication apparatus comprises also a common information field in addition to the first user information field of claim 1; and
the indication information comprises three bits, wherein a first bit of the three bits indicates the 320 MHz channel division manner and is located in a 64th bit position of the common information field.
Park teaches the trigger frame comprising a common information field (“A common information field 1150 includes common control information applied to the receiving STA which receives the corresponding trigger frame,” e.g., “a field indicating a length of an L-SIG field of an uplink PPDU transmitted in response to the corresponding trigger frame or information for controlling content of a SIG-A field (i.e., HE-SIG-A field) of the uplink PPDU transmitted in response to the corresponding trigger frame may be included” – See [¶0145] and Fig. 12).
Park does not teach the indication information comprises three bits.
Kim, teaches two bits, X0 and X1 in the User Info field, to indicate the low/high position of a RA-RU allocated in an 80MHz subchannel of a 160 MHz subchannel in a 320 MHz channel, further teaches wherein one additional bit indicates the 320 MHz channel division manner, in the first place, pointing to the UL BW subfield in Common Info which is to be expanded to support BW of 320MHz – See Slide 4. However, Park modified by Kim does not teach that this first bit of the three bits indicating the 320 MHz channel division manner is located in a 64th bit position of the common information field.
Shellhammer discloses an enhanced trigger frame for EHT support applicable when channel division information comprises a 320 MHz channel division manner while remaining compatible with the 802.11ax HE trigger frame – See Slide 2 and finds available reserved bits for EHT signaling including the “Common Info Field Reserved Bit (B63)” – See Slides 3 and 6 and that 1 bit “Indicates this is an Enhanced Trigger Frame” to all STAs – See Slide 8.
Thus, Park and Kim and Shellhammer referenced by the Compendium each discloses designs for EHT Trigger Frame to accommodate RU allocations in larger bandwidth channels. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that signaling a EHT RU allocation in a 320MHz channel division requires an indication that the channel bandwidth is larger than the 160MHz in IEEE 802.11ax, i.e., a 320 MHz bandwidth and that indication is common to each per STA allocation beside the STA-specific User Info RU Allocations, therefore would rather reuse a reservation bit in the Common Info field, such as B63 (the 64th bit) proposed by Shellhammer. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the substitution though techniques known in the art. Finally, the improvement achieves the predictable result of no change to the Common Info field when upgrading from the 802.11ax frame format to 802.11be EHT trigger format as taught by the Compendium.
Because Claim 1 is obvious over Park in view of the Compendium, Amended Claim 21 is also obvious over Park in view of the Compendium.
In sum, Claims 1-7, and 9-21, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over Park in view of the Compendium
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Nezou et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20200092881 as referenced in the previous Office Action;
Nezou et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0319796 discloses RA-RU allocations for un-associated station over a downlink resource unit, RU, assigned to an AID, e.g. 2045, reserved for stations not associated with the AP;
Lim et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20230300811 as referenced in the previous Office Action;
Viger et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20210176763 as referenced in the previous Office Action;
Park et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20220311543 discloses Channel Access schemes and Signaling Method for EHT/320MHz bandwidth;
Tian et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0079928 discloses special User Info field for ETH trigger frame;
Verma et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0325202, discloses method and device using a single per-user information field of the trigger to signal a plurality of random access resource units that may be allocated to the one or more STAs;
Jang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0325202 discloses an AP transmits a trigger frame to a first to a third station (STA) through a multi-band;
Asterjadhi et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0301490 provides methods, devices, and techniques to indicate operations by extremely high throughput (EHT) devices on an operating bandwidth, including devices in a basic service set (BSS) supporting the use of a 320 MHz channel;
Dong, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0388091 teaches a communication method is performed by an access point wherein message frame includes information for indicating a resource unit, the resource unit is a single-type resource unit or a multi-resource unit;
Seok et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0040899 discloses wireless devices to efficiently use a channel (e.g., an 80 or 160 MHz channel);
IEEE P802.11ax™/D8.0 Draft Standard for Information Technology; Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications; Amendment 1: Enhancements for High Efficiency WLAN, October 2020;
IEEE P802.11, Wireless LANs, 19/1262r21, Title: “Specification framework for TGbe,” published December 3, 2020;
Daldoul et al., Performance evaluation of OFDMA and MU-MIMO in 802.11ax networks, Computer Networks, Volume 182, published 9 December 2020, 107477, ISSN 1389-1286, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107477.
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1See all the IEEE P802.11-Task Group be (EHT) meetings updates available at https://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/tgbe_update.htm
2 Park further teaches how a STA can distinguish between a HE and a EHT TB PPDU based on the length of the L-SIG subfield of the trigger frame – See [¶0239]
3 Because the Common Field bit indication of HE/EHT was discussed supra, only the use of the 2 available bits in the User Info Field will be used as reference here.
Prosecution Insights