DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-6, 10-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lepp et al (US 2019/0110227 A1), in view of Alpert et al (US 2023/0068824 A1).
Regarding claim 1, 11 and 20, Lepp teaches a system/ method /computer readable medium comprising:
an access point (AP) configured to communicate with one or more stations using a wideband preamble on one or more wideband channels and to communicate with a first one or more devices using one or more narrowband channels ([0022], “The AP 102 is able to serve both wireless devices communicating in wideband channels and wireless devices operating in narrowband channels”; [0040], it’s noted that legacy preamble is the wideband preamble); wherein the AP is configured to:
establish a service period (SP) with the one or more stations for which the one or more stations and the AP pause communications over the one or more wideband channels ([0034], “the legacy Quiet Element can be used to suspend transmission in a wideband channel to allow for transmission in a narrowband channel that is a subset of the wideband channel. During a quiet interval calculated using the information in the legacy Quiet Element, both the AP 102 and wireless devices that are part of the BSS of the AP 102 refrain from transmission in a wideband channel”);
receive, during the SP, one or more protocol data units from the first one or more devices over the one or more narrowband channels without the wideband preamble ([0034], “During a quiet interval, the AP 102 can transmit and receive from a wireless device (such as the narrowband wireless device 112 or the dual-capable wireless device 116) in a narrowband channel using the narrowband interface 106 of the AP 102”, it’s noted that the narrowband transmission occupy only a sub-band and are protected by the separately transmitted preamble/NAV mechanism, the received narrowband PDUs do not themselves carry the wideband preamble); and
Lepp doesn’t explicitly teach that forwarding, during the SP, data from the one or more protocol data units to a second one or more devices.
Alpert teaches that forwarding, during the SP, data from the one or more protocol data units to a second one or more devices (Fig. 16, [0104], “Timing diagram 1600 shown in FIG. 16 includes a round-trip time 1682 shorter compared to the duration of the TWT service period 1690. As a result, the station can transmit data 1640 during service period 1690, and the access point can forward feedback 1644 from destination host during the same service period 1690”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the access point of Lepp to receive data from a device and forward the data during the same service period, as taught by Alpert, in order to allow the station and access point to conclude their communication within a single service period (see para 0104 of Alpert).
Regarding claim 2, 12, the aforementioned references further teach that the AP is further configured to establish the SP by communicating a target wakeup time (TWT) parameter corresponding to the SP to each of the one or more stations (Lepp, [0051]).
Regarding claim 3, 13, the aforementioned references further teach that: transmit a clear to send to self (CTS2SELF) frame to at least a station of the one or more stations prior to a start of the SP, the CTS2SELF frame configured to cause the at least the station to refrain from sending transmissions during the SP (Lepp, [0108], “the AP 102 can send further information to a wireless device to set an indicator of a time period during which wireless transmission by the wireless device is not initiated, to protect communication in the narrowband channel from interference”, [0109], “The further information 904 can be in the form of a legacy preamble (as discussed further above) or a clear to send (CTS)-to-self message”).
Regarding claim 4, 14, the aforementioned references further teach that: transmit, over the one or more narrowband channels, a trigger frame to at least one of the first one or more devices or the second one or more devices prior to a start of the SP, the trigger frame configured to indicate to the at least one of the first one or more devices or the second one or more devices to prepare for at least one of a transmission or a receipt of the one or more protocol data units (Lepp, [0051], “In addition to the transmission of the narrowband beacon, during a narrowband operation time interval 412, the AP 102 can transmit downlink data, transmit a trigger for uplink data (to cause a wireless device to send uplink data)”).
Regarding claim 5, 15, the aforementioned references further teach that wherein the AP and the one or more stations are further configured to communicate via the one or more wideband channels before and after the SP (Lepp, [0034], “the legacy Quiet Element can be used to suspend transmission in a wideband channel to allow for transmission in a narrowband channel that is a subset of the wideband channel. During a quiet interval calculated using the information in the legacy Quiet Element, both the AP 102 and wireless devices that are part of the BSS of the AP 102 refrain from transmission in a wideband channel”, it’s noted that wideband pauses is a bounded Quiet Element/NAV interval; wideband stations communicate normally outside it).
Regarding claim 6, 16, the aforementioned references further teach that the first one or more devices include an internet of things (IoT) device (Alpert, [0026], “IoT devices”).
Regarding claim 10 and 19, the aforementioned references further teach that the AP is further configured to exchange narrowband control information and data with the first one or more devices during the SP (Lepp, [0051], In addition to the transmission of the narrowband beacon, during a narrowband operation time interval 412, the AP 102 can transmit downlink data, transmit a trigger for uplink data (to cause a wireless device to send uplink data), receive uplink data, receive contention-based frames, receive a Probe Request, transmit a Probe Response, and transmit narrowband Target Wake Time (TWT) assignments).
Claim 7-9, 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lepp et al (US 2019/0110227 A1), in view of Alpert et al (US 2023/0068824 A1), further in view of Azizi et al (US 2014/0233589 A1).
Regarding claims 7, 17, the aforementioned references teach all of the limitations except that the one or more narrowband channels comprise a bandwidth of up to 1MHz.
Azizi teaches the one or more narrowband channels comprise a bandwidth of up to 1MHz ([0017], ‘with the adoption of a 1 MHz bandwidth”).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the teaching of Azizi in the system disclosed by Lepp in view of Alpert in order to enable very low data rate operation for low-rate services (see paragraph 0003).
Regarding claim 8, the aforementioned references further teach that the one or more protocol data units comprise a narrowband preamble (Azizi, [0017], “with the adoption of a 1 MHz bandwidth having a 32 point FFT, a new preamble structure needs to be designed”).
Regarding claim 9, the aforementioned references further teach that the narrowband preamble is a self-decodable narrowband preamble (Aziz, [0027]-[0029]; [0025]; also see abstract: it’s noted that the receiver operating on the 1Mhz preamble sequence itself: dividing it into a predetermined number of blocks, performing a mathematical operation and summation over those blocks, and maximizing the summation to determine whether the preamble corresponds to a first bandwidth or a second (greater) bandwidth, thereby determining the type of the packet. That is blind, standalone detection: the receiver detects, classifies, and begins decoding the narrowband packet using only the narrowband preamble’s own structure).
Regarding claim 18, the aforementioned references further teach that the one or more protocol data units comprise a narrowband preamble (Azizi, [0017], “with the adoption of a 1 MHz bandwidth having a 32 point FFT, a new preamble structure needs to be designed”), wherein the narrowband preamble is a self-decodable narrowband preamble (Aziz, [0027]-[0029]; [0025]; also see abstract: it’s noted that the receiver operating on the 1Mhz preamble sequence itself: dividing it into a predetermined number of blocks, performing a mathematical operation and summation over those blocks, and maximizing the summation to determine whether the preamble corresponds to a first bandwidth or a second (greater) bandwidth, thereby determining the type of the packet. That is blind, standalone detection: the receiver detects, classifies, and begins decoding the narrowband packet using only the narrowband preamble’s own structure).
Conclusion
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/SIMING LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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