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 § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 7-9, 12-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Smith (2009/0232041).
Regarding claims 1 and 14, Smith discloses an apparatus and a method for data transmission, comprising: sending a first data packet to a plurality of first secondary devices, wherein the first data packet comprises at least one piece of first data corresponding to the plurality of first secondary devices (see The ACL link may be a point-to-multipoint link between the master and the slaves participating in the piconet and may be mainly used to carry data communications in paragraph 0004; the master device 102 may create a channel 106 which may be a logical connection between the master device 102 and a particular slave, for example, the slave 104a, to provide multicast packets to its active slaves 104 in paragraph 0017); receiving a plurality of pieces of first identification information respectively fed back by the plurality of first secondary devices, wherein each first identifier in a respective piece of first identification information indicates whether a corresponding first secondary device successfully receives a corresponding piece of first data from the first data packet (see Each ACL packet may be acknowledged by an acknowledgement packet in paragraph 0019; The master device 102 may schedule transmission opportunities for the slave devices 104 to respond the master device 102 in the preceding slots to acknowledge receptions of the ACL packet at the salves from the master device 102 in paragraph 0020); and selectively resending the first data packet based on the plurality of pieces of first identification information (see The ACL packet may be re-transmitted until a positive acknowledgement may be received from each of the slave devices 104 in paragraph 0019).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Smith discloses the sending a first data packet to a plurality of first secondary devices comprises: sending the first data packet to the plurality of first secondary devices in a first slot in an event period (see multicasting by the master to Slave 1-5 in Slot2k in figure 2).
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Smith discloses receiving the plurality of pieces of first identification information in a plurality of second slots in the event period in a time division manner (see ACKs from Slave 1-5 in Slot2k+1 in figure 2).
Regarding claims 4 and 17, Smith discloses wherein the selectively resending the first data packet based on the plurality of pieces of first identification information comprises: resending the first data packet when any piece of first identification information indicates that a corresponding first secondary device fails to receive target data, wherein the target data is a piece of first data that is in the first data packet and that corresponds to the corresponding first secondary device (see The ACL packet may be retransmitted until a positive acknowledgment may be received or a timeout occurs in paragraph 0019); and sending a second data packet when the plurality of pieces of first identification information indicate that corresponding first secondary devices successfully receive the target data (see sending a second data packet in Slot2k+2 when ACKs are received from Slave 1-5 in figure 2).
Regarding claims 7 and 20, Smith discloses separately sending second identification information to the plurality of first secondary devices, wherein each second identifier in a respective second identification information indicates whether a primary device successfully receives first identification information of a corresponding first secondary device (see 106 to Slave 104a in figure 1; In this regard, the master device 102 may assign opportunities of acknowledging the second ACL packet only to the slave 104a and the slave device 104b from which the master device 102 may not receive a positive acknowledgment of the second ACL packet in the slot 2k+3. The master device 102 may retransmit the second ACL packet intended to the slave device 104a in the next time slot 2k+4 in paragraph 0025).
Regarding claim 8, Smith discloses wherein at least one of second slots, frequencies, or channels corresponding to first identification information of adjacent first secondary devices is preconfigured (see figure 2 where the locations (within Slot2k+1) for Slave 1-5 to transmit ACK/NAK are preconfigured).
Regarding claims 9, 12 and 13, claims 9, 12 and 13 claimed a method performed by a first second device that is in communication with the apparatus of claim 14 and performed the method in claims 1, 7 and 8. Claims 9, 12 and 13 are, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
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 5, 10, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smith in view of Tanaka et al (2018/0167885).
Regarding claims 5 and 18, Smith discloses when data corresponding to the plurality of first secondary devices is the same, the first data packet comprises one piece of first data (see Various aspects of the invention may provide an advertising Bluetooth multicast feature in which a master in a Bluetooth piconet may provide a multicast service to active slave devices during the piconet connection in paragraph 0015). Smith doesn't specifically disclose when data corresponding to the plurality of first secondary devices is different, the first data packet comprises a plurality of pieces of first data respectively corresponding to the plurality of first secondary devices. However, Tanaka discloses this feature (see figure 8 where the packet comprises a plurality of pieces (AID#1, AID#7, …); association identifiers (AIDs) are assigned to the respective slave devices in paragraph 0096; FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a bitmap in which AIDs having the same trigger multiplex transmission information (information necessary for trigger multiplex transmission) are grouped. Specifically, FIG. 8 illustrates an example in which the AIDs=1 and 7 are a group of AIDs having the same trigger multiplex transmission information, and the AIDs=5 and 19 are a group of AIDs having the same trigger multiplex transmission information in paragraph 0133). The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Regarding claim 10, claim 10 claimed a method performed by a first second device that is in communication with the apparatus of claim 14 and performed the method in claim 5. Claim 10 is, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Claims 6, 11, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Smith in view of Lee et al (2017/0127445).
Regarding claims 6 and 19, Smith doesn't specifically disclose sending the first data packet to a second secondary device, wherein the first data packet further comprises a null packet corresponding to the second secondary device, and the null packet is used to maintain a communication connection to the second secondary device. However, to send a null packet to maintain a connection is well known in the art. Lee discloses this feature (see transmits a null packet to maintain a connection which is established between the master BLE device 111 and the slave BLE device 113 in paragraph 0018). The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Regarding claim 11, claim 11 claimed a method performed by a first second device that is in communication with the apparatus of claim 14 and performed the method in claim 6. Claim 11 is, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475