DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to Application No. 18/401,222 filed on 12/29/2023. Claims 1-20 have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/29/2023 and 6/6/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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, 6, 8-10, 13-14, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Oren teaches as follows:
A device (interpreted as the communication device 700 in figure 7 and the NAN device A 402 in figure 4)) comprising:
multiple radios comprising a first radio and a second radio (the computing device 700 may include a plurality of communication chips 706 adapted to perform different communication functions. For example, a first communication chip 706 may be dedicated to shorter range wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, whereas a second communication chip 706 may be dedicated to longer range wireless communications, such as GPS, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, LTE-A, Ev-DO, and the like, see, ¶ [0078] and figure 7), the multiple radios sharing a clock (a communication device with multiple communication interfaces inherently shares same internal clock for all communication interfaces); and
a processor (704 in figure 7) operably connected to the multiple radios (the computing device 700 may include a number of components, one or more processors 704, and one or more communication chips 706, see, ¶ [0075] and figure 7), the processor configured to:
receive, via the first radio (the communication devices 102-112 may be configured to communicate over one or more wireless local area networks (WLANs), such as Wi-Fi, see, ¶ [0018]), a trigger (interpreted as the synchronization beacon 462 in figure 4) from a second device (interpreted as the NAN device B 420 in figure 4), the trigger including a timing indication (the NAN device B may transmit a synchronization beacon associated with the hidden NAN cluster… The synchronization beacon may include timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster, such as an indication of a time at which discovery windows of the hidden NAN cluster are to occur and/or a timestamp, see, ¶ [0066] and figure 4);
determine, based on the timing indication in the trigger and a time of reception of the trigger, a timing of one or more operations of a radio of the second device for a discovery session between the device and the second device (based on the synchronization beacon, the NAN device A may join the hidden NAN cluster. The NAN device A may adjust its discovery window 452 based on the timing information included in the synchronization beacon. This adjustment may synchronize the discovery window of the NAN device A with the discovery window of the NAN device B in the hidden NAN cluster, see, ¶ [0067] and figure 4); and
start the discovery session (interpreted as starting transmitting or receiving data) with the second device based on the determined timing of the one or more operations (the discovery engine may include timing information that indicates a discovery window at which the communication device 300 is configured to transmit and/or receive data using NAN, see, ¶ [0047]. Therefore, the NAN device A and the NAN device inherently communicate data after the discovery window between two devices are synchronized).
Oren does not explicitly teach the time of reception of the trigger but teaches the time stamp included the synchronization beacon as follows:
The synchronization beacon 462 may include timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster, such as an indication of a time at which discovery windows of the hidden NAN cluster are to occur and/or a timestamp (see, ¶ [0066]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren to include a time of reception of the synchronization beacon in the well-known timestamp in order to efficiently synchronize discovery window (discovery session) between two devices.
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Oren teaches as follows:
Wherein the timing of the one or more operations of the radio of the second device for the discovery session is determined based on (i) a reception time of the trigger via the first radio, and (ii) the timing indication included in the trigger (the synchronization beacon may include timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster, such as an indication of a time at which discovery windows of the hidden NAN cluster are to occur and/or a timestamp, see, ¶ [0066] and figure 4).
Regarding claims 6, 13, and 18, Oren teaches as follows:
A first communication chip 706 may be dedicated to shorter range wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, whereas a second communication chip 706 may be dedicated to longer range wireless communications, such as GPS, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, LTE-A, Ev-DO, and the like (see, ¶ [0078]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren to include dedicating the Bluetooth radio as the first radio and the Wi-Fi radio as the second radio.
Regarding claim 8, Oren teaches as follows:
Wherein the timing indication is based on (i) a planned timing of the one or more operations of the radio of the second device for the discovery session, and (ii) a transmission time of the trigger from the second device (the synchronization beacon 462 may include timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster, such as an indication of a time at which discovery windows of the hidden NAN cluster are to occur and/or a timestamp, see, ¶ [0066] and figure 4)..
Oren does not explicitly teach the time of reception of the trigger but teaches the time stamp included the synchronization beacon as follows:
The synchronization beacon 462 may include timing information associated with the hidden NAN cluster, such as an indication of a time at which discovery windows of the hidden NAN cluster are to occur and/or a timestamp (see, ¶ [0066]).
Regarding claim 14, Oren teaches all limitations as presented above in the rejection for claims 1 and 8. Therefore, it is rejected for similar reason as presented above.
Claims 3, 11, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273) in view of Sampathkumar (US 2013/0315121).
Regarding claims 3, 11, and 15, Oren teaches as follows:
The NAN device A 402 and the NAN device B 420 may have respective discovery windows 452, 460. A discovery window may be a time and channel on which NAN devices converge. During a discovery window the NAN devices are available with high probability for mutual discovery. During interim periods the NAN devices may be asleep or involved with other activities (see, ¶ [0061] and figure 4).
Oren does not teach the well-known timer indicating remaining time for current operation mode.
Sampathkumar teaches as follows:
The access point 102 can use any suitable time unit to indicate when and for how long the access point will quiet the communication channel and enter the sleep mode. The station 112 may use the quiet information to determine how long the communication channel will be available for access (see, ¶ [0020]); and
the power saving unit 108 can trigger the access point 102 to wake from the low powered state. In one implementation, the power unit may use the access point sleep timer to keep track of 1) how long the access point should remain in sleep mode, and 2) when the access point should enter sleep mode (see, ¶ [0024] and figure 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren with Sampathkumar to include transmitting access point sleep timer to the station in order for the station to determine the availability of a communication channel with the access point.
Claims 4, 12, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273) in view of Sampathkumar (US 2013/0315121), and further in view of Luo et al. (hereinafter Luo)(US 2024/0292202).
Regarding claims 4, 12, and 16, Oren in view of Sampathkumar does not teach the Unsynchronized Service Discovery (USD) Single Channel Publish (SCP) state or a USD non-SCP (NSCP) state.
Luo teaches as follows:
A publisher 610 can enter a single channel publish state 610-2. In such a state, a publisher 610 can transmit discovery messages on one channel from the computed discovery channel set. In some embodiments, the one channel can be a social channel. In the embodiment shown, this can include transmitting unsolicited NAN (Neighbor Aware Networking) SDF (Service Discovery Frame) 610-3a on a default publishing channel (see, ¶ [0050] and figure 6);
a publisher 610 can enter a multiple channels publish state 610-5. In such a state, a publisher 610 can transmit discovery messages over multiple channels, which can be selected from the discovery channel set (see, ¶ [0051] and figure 6); and
a publisher 610 can alternate between a single channel publishing state 610-2 and multiple channels publish state 610-3 until a response is detected from a subscriber 612 (see, ¶ [0052]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren in view of Sampathkumar with Luo to include indicating current channel state to the subscriber as taught by Luo in order to efficiently synchronize each other.
Claims 5 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273) in view of Luo et al. (hereinafter Luo)(US 2024/0292202).
Regarding claims 5 and 17, Oren does not teach the unsynchronized Service Discovery (USD) Publish or Subscribe session.
Luo teaches as follows:
An operation 608 can include communications between a device operating as a publisher 610 and a device operating as a subscriber 612. An operation 608 can be a matter commissioning protocol over unsynchronized service discovery frames… An operation 608 can include both a publisher 610 and a subscriber 612 entering an unsynchronized service discovery operation (see, ¶ [0045]-[0046] and figure 6).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren with Luo to include the unsynchronized service discovery frames as taught by Luo in order for efficient discovery operation.
Claims 7 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273) in view of Kang et al. (hereinafter Kang)(US 2010/0214858).
Regarding claims 7 and 19, Oren teaches as follows:
The first radio and the second radio also share a coexistence interface (a first communication chip 706 may be dedicated to shorter range wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (see, ¶ [0078] and figure 7).
Oren does not teach the well-known on-chip hardware clock.
Kang teaches as follows:
In order to meet these strict timing requirements, an interface circuit requires a circuit for synchronizing the phase of an internal on-chip clock with the phase of an external system clock (see, ¶ [0008]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren with Kang to include the well-known on-chip clock as taught by Kang in order to efficiently meet strict timing requirements.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oren (US 2016/0192273) in view of Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim)(US 2017/0034688).
Regarding claim 20, Oren teaches all limitations as presented above except for the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) trigger nor the device-to-device (D2D) discovery session.
Kim teaches as follows:
A terminal which periodically broadcasts a beacon signal (for example, BLE iBeacon, a D2D discovery signal, or the like) is called a beacon terminal (see, ¶ [0698]); and
A BLE based beacon signal (hereinafter, referred to as ‘iBeacon’) and a LTE D2D discovery signal may coexist at the same place and the same time (see, ¶ [0700]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Oren with Kim to include the well-known BLE iBeacon and the D2D discovery signal as taught by Kim in order to efficiently discover devices in various network connections.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeong S Park whose telephone number is (571)270-1597. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday 8:00-4:30 ET.
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/JEONG S PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
December 13, 2025
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