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 .
Election/Restrictions
In response to the Office Action mailed on 8/27/2015, Applicant elect group 1 which includes claims 1-8 and 14-21 without traverse.
Claims 9-13 are canceled.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-8, 14-17, 19-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fang et al. Pub. No. US 20190289633 A1 in view of Baron et al. Pub. No. US 20200287838 A1.
Regarding Claim 1, Fang teaches a wireless access point (Fig. 1 and Para 33, an example of infrastructure BSS. BSS1 and BSS2 are infrastructure BSSes. BSS1 contains one access point (AP1) and several non-AP stations, STA11, STA12, and STA13. The AP1 maintains associations with stations STA11, STA12, and STA13. BSS2 contains one access point (AP2) and two non-AP stations, STA21 and STA22. The AP2 maintains associations with stations STA21 and STA22. Infrastructure BSS1 and BSS2 may be interconnected via the AP1 and AP2 or connected to a server or switch through a distribution system (DS) to form an Extended Service Set (ESS)) for latency-based contention (Para 131, the SOFDMA capable AP could use the number of CA slots to control the initial access latency and use the (CWmin, CWmax) to prevent a large number of stations from accessing the medium at same CA-TXOP i.e., latency-based contention), comprising:
a processing device (Fig. 10 and Para 155, radio station 1005 such as a base station or a wireless device can include processor electronics 1010 such as a microprocessor that implements one or more of the wireless techniques i.e., processing device) configured to:
monitor (Para 34, A station senses the medium i.e., monitor) a media idle time (Para 34, If the medium is sensed busy, the station defers access to the busy medium until the medium is determined as being in an idle state plus a period of time equal to xIFS when the last frame detected on the medium was received correctly i.e., media idle time) using a media idle time counter (Para 53, The SOFDMA capable AP may maintain a CA slot counter to calculate the CA slot elapses in the CA-TXOP if the number of CA slots m is greater than 1. Once the AP detects the medium idle for aSlotTime (for the option in FIG. 3A) or the time elapsed over the duration of the CA slot (for the option in FIG. 3B), it decreases the CA slot counter by one and continue sensing the medium until the CA slot counter reaches the end in the CA-TXOP. Then the SOFDMA capable AP will transmit the trigger response acknowledgement frame to release the CA-TXOP i.e., using a media idle time counter),
wherein the media idle time is measured from a last transition from a clear channel assessment (CCA) busy indication to a CCA idle indication (Para 93, When the SOFDMA stations share the same frequency channel with legacy stations, the first two sub-fields are the same as the legacy preamble so that legacy stations could detect medium occupancy with legacy CCA detection mechanism i.e., the media idle time is measured from a last transition from a clear channel assessment (CCA) busy indication to a CCA idle indication);
identify a frame (Para 100-101, SOFDMA capable STA use the identical settings in L-SIG of trigger response frame during the contention. Assuming STAs have been synchronized to AP based on the trigger frame, if the timing and frequency alignment of STAs to AP is within a certain threshold, the AP and other nearby STAs (including legacy ones) could be able to synchronize with the legacy preamble field of trigger response frame and decode the L-SIG i.e., identify a frame);
determine a back-off counter when the frame arrives (Para 105, In order to evenly distribute STAs across the CA-TXOP (or multiple CA-TXOPs), a SOFDMA capable station may use a backoff (BF) counter to control the UL channel access in a CA slot of CA-TXOP if AP does not specify the particular responding stations in the trigger frame. Initially, the SOFDMA capable STA sets its backoff counter randomly in the range of contention window (CW) provided by the AP in either management frame like beacon, or in the trigger frame. The backoff counter uses time ticks of trigger frame, CA slot counter and idle time measurement in the unit of aSlotTime. After receiving the trigger frame, the SOFDMA capable station checks the permission for the channel access and its backoff counter value, and transmits the trigger response frame in SIFS time if the backoff counter is equal to 0 and it is permitted in CA-TXOP i.e., determine a back-off counter when the frame arrives);
push the frame for transmission (Para 105, After receiving the trigger frame, the SOFDMA capable station checks the permission for the channel access and its backoff counter value, and transmits the trigger response frame in SIFS time if the backoff counter is equal to 0 and it is permitted in CA-TXOP i.e., push the frame for transmission) when the back-off counter is less than or equal to the media idle time counter (Para 105, FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B show a group (MU STA Group 1) of STAs which backoff counters reach 0 at receiving the trigger frame. Those STAs (STA1, 2, 3 and 4) will start transmitting the trigger response frame immediately after xIFS time of the trigger frame. Other SOFDMA stations will decrease their backoff counters by 1 and continue sensing the medium for transmission opportunities in next CA slots. Once the CA slot finishes, the CA slot counter is decreased by one); and
a transceiver configured to transmit the frame (Fig. 6 and Para 121, If the backoff counter reaches 0, it indicates the current CA slot is for the station to transmit the trigger response frame i.e., transceiver configured to transmit the frame).
Fang does not specifically teach
identify a frame at a contention queue head
determine a back-off counter when the frame arrives at the contention queue head.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Baron teaches
identify a frame at a contention queue head (Para 108, Each AC has its own traffic queue/buffer to store corresponding data frames to be transmitted on the network i.e., frame in the queue. Baron further teaches from Para 109 that Each AC has also its own set of queue contention parameters, and is associated with a priority value, thus defining traffics of higher or lower priority of MSDUs. Thus, there is a plurality of traffic queues for serving data traffic at different priorities. The queue contention (EDCA) parameters usually include CW.sub.min, CW.sub.max, AIFSN and TXOP_Limit parameters for each traffic queue. CW.sub.min and CW.sub.max are the lower and higher boundaries of a selection range from which the EDCA contention window CW is selected for a given traffic queue i.e., identify a frame at a contention queue head)
determine a back-off counter when the frame arrives at the contention queue head (Para 110, each AC (and corresponding buffer) acts as an independent DCF contending entity including its respective queue backoff engine 211. Thus, each queue backoff engine 211 is associated with a respective traffic queue 210 for using queue contention parameters and setting a respective queue backoff value/counter (randomly selected from the contention window CW) i.e., determine a back-off counter when the frame arrives at the contention queue head).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Fang with the method of Baron so as to use contend for access to at least one communication channel in order to transmit data stored in the respective traffic queue over an accessed communication channel (See Baron Para 110).
Regarding Claim 2. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: determine the back-off counter based on one or more of arbitration inter- frame spacing (AIFS) or a random back-off counter between zero and a contention window (CW) (Para 73).
Regarding Claim 3. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: set the media idle time counter to zero when the CCA idle indication transitions to a CCA busy indication; and freeze the media idle time counter at zero until the CCA busy indication transitions to the CCA idle indication (Para 34 and 137).
Regarding Claim 4. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: monitor the media idle time based on one or more of a link, a frequency range, a bandwidth, a frequency band, a frequency sub-band, a frequency channel, or a contiguous CCA frequency portion (Para 77 and 101).
Regarding Claim 6. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: select a transmission mode from a plurality of transmission modes based on one or more transmission mode idle times for the plurality of transmission modes (Para 74 and 104).
Regarding Claim 7. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: select a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) bandwidth (BW) mode based on one or more of a CCA indication, a link indication, a number of users, a physical layer (PHY) mode, permitted BW channels, or permitted BW sub- channels; or select a puncturing mode based on one or more of the CCA indication, the link indication, the number of users, the PHY mode, the permitted BW channels, or the permitted BW sub-channels (Para 147).
Regarding Claim 8. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: select a transmission slot from a plurality of contention slots based on background contention for the plurality of contention slots; and push the frame for transmission using the transmission slot (Para 46 and 50).
Regarding Claim 14, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 1 and further teaches a station (STA) (Fig. 1 and Para 33, an example of infrastructure BSS. BSS1 and BSS2 are infrastructure BSSes. BSS1 contains one access point (AP1) and several non-AP stations, STA11, STA12, and STA13. The AP1 maintains associations with stations STA11, STA12, and STA13. BSS2 contains one access point (AP2) and two non-AP stations, STA21 and STA22. The AP2 maintains associations with stations STA21 and STA22. Infrastructure BSS1 and BSS2 may be interconnected via the AP1 and AP2 or connected to a server or switch through a distribution system (DS) to form an Extended Service Set (ESS)) for latency-based contention (Para 131, the SOFDMA capable AP could use the number of CA slots to control the initial access latency and use the (CWmin, CWmax) to prevent a large number of stations from accessing the medium at same CA-TXOP i.e., latency-based contention).
Regarding Claim 15, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 2.
Regarding Claim 16, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 3.
Regarding Claim 17, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 4.
Regarding Claim 19, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 6.
Regarding Claim 20, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 7.
Regarding Claim 21, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 8.
Claim(s) 5 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fang et al. Pub. No. US 20190289633 A1 in view of Baron et al. Pub. No. US 20200287838 A1 and further in view of Lu et al. Pub. No. US 20210345404 A1.
Regarding Claim 5. The wireless access point of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to: monitor the media idle time based on puncturing for a dynamic sub-band CCA indication.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lu teaches AP (e.g., STA 110) may transmit in a non-primary 80-MHz segment in an event that all 20-MHz channels indicated as being non-punctured in the preamble puncturing pattern for the non-primary 80-MHz segment are clear channel assessment (CCA) idle (Para 36) Lu further teaches that n wirelessly communicating with the at least one of the one or more STAs, processor 1312 may transmit on the frequency segment in an event that all of a plurality of 20-MHz channels in the frequency segment, which are indicated as being not punctured in the preamble puncturing pattern, are CCA idle. In some cases, in wirelessly communicating with the at least one of the one or more STAs, processor 1312 may transmit on the frequency segment in an event that at least one of a plurality of 20-MHz channels in the frequency segment, which is indicated as being not punctured in the preamble puncturing pattern, is CCA idle i.e., monitor the media idle time based on puncturing for a dynamic sub-band CCA indication (Para 64).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Fang with the method of Baron and further in view of Lu so as to increase spectrum usage when there are radar signals, incumbent signals or overlapping basic service set (OBSS) interferences occurring in one or more non-primary channels (See Lu Para 5).
Regarding Claim 18, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 5.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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NIZAR N. SIVJI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2647
/NIZAR N SIVJI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647