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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on January 3, 2025 and January 27, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Shellhammer et al. (Shellhammer), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0194629.
Regarding claims 1, 17 and 19, Shellhammer discloses a link adaptation method, non-transitory CRM and apparatus (having a processor coupled to a memory that stores a computer program, the processor causing the apparatus to perform the following steps) (The memory 2308 can include tangible storage media such as random-access memory (RAM) or read-only memory (ROM), or combinations thereof. The memory 2308 also can store non-transitory processor- or computer-executable software (SW) code containing instructions that, when executed by the processor 2306, cause the processor to perform various operations described) (0135; see also figures 23, 24A and 24B), comprising: receiving a link adaptation physical layer protocol data unit (LA PPDU), wherein a signal of the LA PPDU on a portion of resources (resource units) is a null signal (The test packet may be part of a link adaptation protocol specified in the standard technical specification. In some implementations, the test packet may be based on a packet format for a null data packet (NDP).) (0046), and the resources (resource units) comprise: a time resource, a frequency resource, a space resource, a time-frequency resource, a time-space resource, a frequency-space resource, and/or a time-space-frequency resource (OFDMA breaks down the channel width into a plurality of resource units (RUs). Each RU may include a different quantity of subcarriers… Thus, the RU 570 may be divided by frequency division to support different test portions 512, 522, 532, and 542… each OFDM symbol may carry user data or other signaling in some subcarriers and a test portion in other subcarriers. Furthermore, a series of OFDM symbols may be used to communicate test portions which occupy subsets of the subcarriers in each OFDM symbol.) (0083-0085); and determining a link adaptation result based on the null signal of the LA PPDU on the portion of the resources (based on interference estimation of spatial streams) (0104; see also 0045).
Regarding claims 2, 18 and 20, Shellhammer discloses the method, apparatus and CRM according to claims 1, 17 and 19 further comprising: sending a trigger frame, indicating to send the LA PPDU (For example, a trigger message from an AP may indicate which RUs are allocated to particular STAs to use for uplink traffic in the PPDU that follows the trigger message.) (0083).
Regarding claim 3, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the determining of the link adaptation result based on the null signal of the LA PPDU on the portion of the resources comprises: estimating, based on the null signal of the LA PPDU on the portion of the resources, power of interference on the portion of the resources; and obtaining the link adaptation result based on the power of interference on the portion of the resources (The receiving WLAN device can observe the test packet to determine the one or more link quality metrics. Examples of link quality metrics may include, log-likelihood ratio (LLR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR), error vector magnitude (EVM), block error rate (BLER), bit error rate (BER), or codeword error rate (CWER), among other examples. In some implementations, link quality also may be referred to as channel quality. In some implementations, link quality also may refer to the effect of interference on one or more tones or spatial streams within a wireless channel.) (0045)
Regarding claim 4, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the resources are time-frequency resources, signals of the LA PPDU on a first time-frequency resource comprise a signal with energy and a null signal (The link adaptation test signal 1040 may be a known pattern or bit sequence (for example based on an LTF sequence, a pattern with null subcarriers, or a new SINR test pattern, among other examples). The test portions 1021, 1022, and 1023 may be based on the same link adaptation test signal 1040.) (0103), and the first time-frequency resource is a time-frequency resource comprising one symbol and bandwidth (As such, these PPDUs are transmitted over a physical channel having a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz, but larger channels can be formed through channel bonding.) (0057) occupied by the LA PPDU (A PPDU may be different lengths of time and include multiple OFDM symbols.) (0081-0083).
Regarding claim 5, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the bandwidth occupied by the LA PPDU comprises a plurality of frequency resource groups, and the portion of the resources are time-frequency resources comprising one symbol and some of the frequency resource groups (The OFDM channel width may include multiple subcarriers. The subcarriers also may be referred to as tones. A WLAN packet (also referred to as a PPDU) includes data that is encoded using the subcarriers of the channel width. A PPDU may be different lengths of time and include multiple OFDM symbols.) (0081).
Regarding claim 6, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the resources are the time- frequency resources, and the portion of the resources comprise time- frequency resources separately comprising different symbols and different frequency resource groups (The OFDM channel width may include multiple subcarriers. The subcarriers also may be referred to as tones. A WLAN packet (also referred to as a PPDU) includes data that is encoded using the subcarriers of the channel width. A PPDU may be different lengths of time and include multiple OFDM symbols.) (0081).
Regarding claim 7, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 5, wherein the portion of the resources are inherently periodic (The link adaptation test signal 1040 may be a known pattern or bit sequence (for example based on an LTF sequence, a pattern with null subcarriers, or a new SINR test pattern, among other examples). The test portions 1021, 1022, and 1023 may be based on the same link adaptation test signal 1040.) (0103)
Regarding claim 8, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein the signal with energy is at least one first sequence, the at least one first sequence is a preset test sequence, and different first sequences correspond to different modulation and coding schemes (MCSs); or the signal with energy is a data bit carrying a media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) (In accordance with this disclosure, a link adaptation protocol may include one or more packets exchanged between a transmitting WLAN device and a receiving WLAN device to quickly determine an MCS or other parameter for a subsequent communication. For example, a transmitting WLAN device may communicate a first packet (which also may be referred to as a test packet, a link adaptation test packet, a fast rate adaptation test packet, or an FRA test packet) that can be used to determine one or more link quality metrics regarding the wireless channel.) (0045)
Regarding claim 9, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the resources are time-space resources, signals of the LA PPDU on a first time-space resource comprise a signal with energy and a null signal, and the first time-space resource is a time-space resource comprising one symbol and all spatial streams (The OFDM channel width may include multiple subcarriers. The subcarriers also may be referred to as tones. A WLAN packet (also referred to as a PPDU) includes data that is encoded using the subcarriers of the channel width. A PPDU may be different lengths of time and include multiple OFDM symbols.) (0081).
Regarding claim 10, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 9, wherein the resources are time-space resources, and the portion of the time-space resources comprising one symbol and some of the spatial streams (In some implementations, link quality also may be referred to as channel quality. In some implementations, link quality also may refer to the effect of interference on one or more tones or spatial streams within a wireless channel.) (0045).
Regarding claim 11, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 9, wherein the signal with energy is at least one second sequence, and the at least one second sequence is an extremely high throughput long training field (EHT-LTF) (The feedback message format 800 may include a legacy short training field 804 (L-STF), a legacy long training field 806 (L-LTF), and a legacy signal field 808 (L-SIG).) (0091).
Regarding claim 12, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein the LA PPDU comprises a subfield of a number of EHT-LTF symbols, and the subfield of the number of EHT-LTF symbols indicates a number of symbols corresponding to the at least one second sequence in the LA PPDU (The feedback message format 800 may include a legacy short training field 804 (L-STF), a legacy long training field 806 (L-LTF), and a legacy signal field 808 (L-SIG).) (0091); (The second example feedback message format 801 may be based on a legacy preamble (L-STF 804, L-LTF 806, and L-SIG 808) followed by feedback information 838. FIG. 8B shows several example feedback subfields 860 contained in the feedback information 838. The example feedback subfields 860 include one or more link quality metrics 862, a selected MCS option indicator 864, and test results bitmap 866.) (0092).
Regarding claim 13, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 11, wherein the signal with energy is at least one third sequence, the at least one third sequence is a preset test sequence, and different third sequences correspond to different MCSs; or the signal with energy is a data bit that carries a MPDU (For example, a transmitting WLAN device may communicate a first packet (which also may be referred to as a test packet, a link adaptation test packet, a fast rate adaptation test packet, or an FRA test packet) that can be used to determine one or more link quality metrics regarding the wireless channel. Communicating a test packet may refer to transmitting a test packet from the transmitting WLAN device to the receiving WLAN device or may refer to receiving a test packet from the receiving WLAN device. For brevity, some examples of this disclosure refer to communicating the test packet by transmitting the test packet to the receiving WLAN device. The receiving WLAN device can observe the test packet to determine the one or more link quality metrics. Examples of link quality metrics may include, log-likelihood ratio (LLR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR)) (0045).
Regarding claim 14, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the link adaptation result comprises at least one of the following: power of interference; power of noise; power of the signal with energy; a signal-to-noise ratio; a signal to interference plus noise ratio; a recommended MCS based on the signal-to-noise ratio; a recommended MCS based on the signal to interference plus noise ratio; a recommended number of spatial streams based on the signal-to-noise ratio; or a recommended number of spatial streams based on the signal to interference plus noise ratio (The transmission rate may be defined by, among other parameters, an MCS selected based on channel conditions. In accordance with this disclosure, a link adaptation protocol may include one or more packets exchanged between a transmitting WLAN device and a receiving WLAN device to quickly determine an MCS or other parameter for a subsequent communication. For example, a transmitting WLAN device may communicate a first packet (which also may be referred to as a test packet, a link adaptation test packet, a fast rate adaptation test packet, or an FRA test packet) that can be used to determine one or more link quality metrics regarding the wireless channel. Communicating a test packet may refer to transmitting a test packet from the transmitting WLAN device to the receiving WLAN device or may refer to receiving a test packet from the receiving WLAN device. For brevity, some examples of this disclosure refer to communicating the test packet by transmitting the test packet to the receiving WLAN device. The receiving WLAN device can observe the test packet to determine the one or more link quality metrics. Examples of link quality metrics may include, log-likelihood ratio (LLR), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR), error vector magnitude (EVM), block error rate (BLER), bit error rate (BER), or codeword error rate (CWER), among other examples.) (0045).
Regarding claim 15, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the LA PPDU further comprises indication information, and the indication information indicates indicating that the LA PPDU is used for link adaptation detection (Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU. In instances in which PPDUs are transmitted over a bonded channel, the preamble fields may be duplicated and transmitted in each of the multiple component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a legacy portion (or “legacy preamble”) and a non-legacy portion (or “non-legacy preamble”). The legacy preamble may be used for packet detection) (0058).
Regarding claim 16, Shellhammer discloses the method according to claim 15, wherein the indication information is inherently located in any one of the following: any one of B20 to B24 of a first symbol of a universal signal (U-SIG) field; B25 of the first symbol of the U-SIG field; B2 or B8 of a second symbol of the U-SIG field; any one of B13 to B16 of an EHT-SIG; or a customized PPDU format and compressed mode field in the U-SIG field (In some implementations, a test packet may be communicated as a MIMO transmission using the signals 341, 342, 343, and 344. The test packet may include a link quality estimation portion that occupies one or more OFDM symbols encoded according to the MIMO spatial streams supported between the first WLAN device 110 and the second WLAN device 120.) (0070).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yang et al. (Yang), U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2021/0160713, discloses transmitter-based link adaptation.
Seok, U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2017/0289987, discloses a method and apparatus for processing PPDU based on BSS identification information in a high efficiency wireless LAN.
Li et al., U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2017/0202015, discloses channel access policy control during wireless communication.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEMICA M. BEAMER whose telephone number is (571)272-7797. The examiner can normally be reached Monday thru Friday; 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
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/TEMICA M BEAMER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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