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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 7 recites the limitation "the companion station" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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 and 8-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang et al (2019/0357143).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Wang discloses an apparatus/a wireless station (see WTRU 102 in figures 1A and 1B) comprising: a processor configured to: cause a wireless station to receive a payload (see frame body in figure 2 and payload in paragraph 0022) from a transmitter (see a base station 114 in figure 1A) on a first resource unit (RU) (see resource unit in paragraphs 0115, 0246) on which communications between the transmitter and a second wireless station (see one of the WTRUs 102 in figure 1A) are also taking place (see AP1 indicates to one or more STAs whether STA1 should transmit or receive at an indicated time interval, in the WURespF or in the PCR response. In some embodiments, AP1 indicates which band, bandwidth, RU, and/or spatial stream STA1 or each of the STAs should be using for their PCR. In some embodiments AP1 indicates which TX/RX mode, (e.g., SU, MU, OFDMA, MU-MIMO) STA1 should use in paragraph 0156 and figures 15 and 16. Note that MU-MIMO refers to Multi-User, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output, a wireless technology that allows a single router or access point to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously).
Regarding claim 2, Wang discloses receive the payload in a multiuser physical protocol data unit (MU PPDU) (see MU PPDU in paragraph 0201).
Regarding claim 3, Wang discloses the payload comprises a latency-sensitive payload (see The data may have varying quality of service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements in paragraph 0062).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Wang discloses cause the wireless station to receive information instructing the wireless station to monitor the first RU to receive the payload on the first RU (see a STA is woken up for configuration/reconfiguration, such as reconfiguration of sleeping/wake-up/monitoring schedules, and/or wake up channels, etc. Such a process may be a part of association/reassociation procedure, or after an AP makes a determination to change its configurations for a STA or for its BSS in paragraph 0207; AP1 indicates to one or more STAs whether STA1 should transmit or receive at an indicated time interval in paragraph 0156).
Regarding claim 8, Wang discloses receive information in a dedicated user field in a preamble of a received packet, wherein the information comprises: a station identifier of the wireless station (see one or more STA identifiers may be included, such as MAC addresses, Association Identification (AIDs), or any other types of identifiers for one or more STAs in paragraph 0112); and an identifier of the first RU (see TX/RX Bandwidth/resource unit (RU): which may indicate the capabilities of the transmitting STAs that are capable of transmit and/or receive. Values for this field may include one or more 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80, or any large or smaller bandwidth such as RUs in paragraph 0118).
Regarding claim 9, Wang discloses wherein one or more RU properties for receiving the payload on the first RU are different relative to one or more RU properties for the communications currently ongoing on the first RU between the transmitter and the second wireless station (see TX/RX Bandwidth: which may indicate the capabilities of the transmitting STAs that are capable of transmit and/or receive. Values for this field may include one or more 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80, or any large or smaller bandwidth such as Rus in paragraph 0118. Note that the different properties are the different in frequency values such as 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80).
Regarding claim 10, Wang discloses wherein a first portion of the preamble indicates a presence of the dedicated user field in the preamble (see one or more STA identifiers may be included, such as MAC addresses, Association Identification (AIDs), or any other types of identifiers for one or more STAs that are requested to be woken up in paragraph 0112; the Wake Up Scheduling field 216 may include scheduling and configuration for the primary connectivity radio of the targeted STAs after they are awake. In some embodiments, this field indicates whether the primary connectivity radio of the targeted STA will transmit or receive in paragraph 0114).
Regarding claim 11, Wang discloses cause the wireless station to transmit a delayed block acknowledgment to the transmitter in response to successfully receiving the payload (see The WUReqF may also contain a flag that indicates an allowable delay before an acknowledgement/WURespF is returned in paragraphs 0215; an ACK within the desired delay in paragraph 0182).
Regarding claim 12, Wang discloses the transmitter comprises a wireless access point (see an access point (AP) in paragraph 0024).
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 17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Kim et al (2018/0167879).
Regarding claim 17, Wang discloses an apparatus comprising: a processor (see figure 1B) configured to: cause a wireless station to detect a newly transmitted multiuser physical protocol data unit (MU PPDU) (see MU PPDU in paragraph 0201; figure 16 for illustrates consecutive transmission of multi WUR packets and PCR packets for multiple STAs in paragraph 0211) and identify, based at least on second information within the preamble, a resource unit (RU) (see a preamble in paragraph 0108; TX/RX Bandwidth and resource allocation for the targeted STAs for TX and/or RX. Values for this field may include one or more 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 80+80, or any large or smaller bandwidth such as RUs, and/or down-/up-clocked bandwidths, as well as the RUs and/or (sub)channels assigned to the targeted STAs in paragraph 0129). Wang doesn't specifically disclose determine, based at least on first information within a preamble of the MU PPDU, whether to receive a frame within the MU PPDU; and select, based at least on a transmitter address and a receive address indicated by the MU PPDU, which media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) of the MU PPDU to receive over the RU. However, Kim discloses these features (see receiving a MU PPDU (Multi-User Physical Protocol Data unit) comprising A-MPDU (Aggregated MAC Protocol Data Unit) from an AP (Access Point) in paragraph 0007; The STA may also determine whether the PPDU is intended for the STA (S620). The way of determining this depends on the format of the PPDU, but one common way is determining whether the receiver address of the PPDU is the STA's address in paragraph 0063). 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 20, Wang discloses wherein the second information comprises an association identifier (AID) associated with the RU, wherein the AID is first in a reception order of received AIDs (see Association Identification (AIDs) in paragraph 0112).
Claims 18 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Kim as applied to claim 17 above, and further in view of Qu et al (2021/0126900).
Regarding claim 18, Kim discloses cause the wireless station to stop reception on the RU when the transmitter address does not match a receiver address (see If the answers to the both of the determinations are ‘yes’, the STA may enter into the doze state (stop reception on the RU) until the end of the PPDU (S630) in paragraph 0064). Kim doesn't specifically disclose when the transmitter address does not match. However, Qu using the transmitter address to determining the matching (see the IP data packet of the specified service is identified after a source IP address of the IP data packet of the specified service is matched against a preset IP address set in paragraph 0135). 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 19, Qu discloses generate a block acknowledgment corresponding to the received MPDUs (see uploads the MPDUs to an LLC layer of the protocol stack, and returns a block acknowledgment (BA) frame in paragraph 0083).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 and 15-16 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475