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)(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, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yang US 20230354377.
Regarding claim 1, Yang teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by an access point (AP) from a first station (STA), a first frame comprising a buffer status report (BSR) associated with a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection between the first STA and a second STA (fig. 2, Thereafter, the terminal device transmits the buffer status report to the access node in step 204, The buffer status report indicating the direct wireless link, e.g. with the association identifier of the direct wireless link, may serve as a request for allocating a resource unit to the direct wireless link. The request may be called a request to send a trigger-based peer-to-peer PPDU to the terminal device 102 specified with the association identifier, [0070]); and
sending, by the AP and based on the BSR, a second frame, wherein the second frame indicates:
an indication of a first frequency allocation associated with a transmission by the first STA and during an allocated time of a transmission opportunity (TXOP) obtained by the AP (fig. 2, 3, block 206, The access node may acknowledge (ACK) the reception of the message carrying the buffer status report in step 400. Thereafter, the access node may perform the allocation of the resource unit to the direct wireless link (block 304) and transmit the trigger frame indicating the allocated resource unit in block 304, [0071], trigger frame indicating resource unit, [0054], In an embodiment, the resource unit comprises a time-frequency transmission resource, [0010]); and
a first identifier of the second STA, wherein the second STA is a target STA of the transmission by the first STA via the first frequency allocation (The access node may acknowledge (ACK) the reception of the message carrying the buffer status report in step 400. Thereafter, the access node may perform the allocation of the resource unit to the direct wireless link (block 304) and transmit the trigger frame indicating the allocated resource unit in block 304, [0071], in response to the message, a trigger frame indicating a resource unit allocated to the direct wireless link, [0054]).
Regarding claim 21, the BSR indicates a queue size associated with the P2P connection ([0062]).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Xia US 20240008081.
Yang is silent on the second frame further indicates a Triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) mode related to the TXOP, and wherein the method further comprises:
based on the TXS mode, sending, during the allocated time of the TXOP and by the first SPA, a Clear to Send (OTS) frame, to the AP or the second STA.
Xia teaches the first STA sending a frame to the AP indicating a Triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) mode related to the TXOP, and wherein the method further comprises:
based on the TXS mode, sending, during the allocated time of the TXOP and by the first SPA, a Clear to Send (OTS) frame, to the AP (fig. 8, [0017]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by the first STA sending a frame to the AP indicating a Triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) mode related to the TXOP, and wherein the method further comprises:
based on the TXS mode, sending, during the allocated time of the TXOP and by the first SPA, a Clear to Send (OTS) frame, to the AP, as shown by Xia. This modification would benefit the system by avoiding collisions in the data transmissions.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Shirali US 20170332385.
Yang is silent on sending a Buffer Status Report Poll (BSRP} trigger frame to the first STA: and receiving, based on the BSERP trigger frame, the first frame from the first STA.
Shirali teaches sending a Buffer Status Report Poll (BSRP} trigger frame to the first STA: and receiving, based on the BSERP trigger frame, the first frame from the first STA (An AP may solicit one or more HE STAs for their BSR(s) by sending a BSRP variant Trigger frame. A STA that receives a BSRP variant Trigger frame may generate the trigger-based PPDU, [0137]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by sending a Buffer Status Report Poll (BSRP} trigger frame to the first STA: and receiving, based on the BSERP trigger frame, the first frame from the first STA, as shown by Shirali. This modification would benefit the system by enabling the AP to request information from the first STA.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Cheridan US 20220078844.
Yang is silent on the second frame further indicates: a second frequency allocation to be used by a third STA during the allocated time of the TXOP; and
a second identifier of a fourth STA as a target STA associated with a transmission from the third STA and during the allocated time of the TAOP via the second frequency allocation.
Cheridan teaches a frame indicating a second frequency allocation to be used by a third STA during the allocated time of the TXOP; and
an identifier of a STA as a target STA associated with a transmission from the STA receiving the transmission and during the allocated time of the TXOP via the second frequency allocation (claim 3). Note, Cheridan teaches multiple STAs (more than 2) receiving different frequency resource assignments during a portion of the TXOP.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by the second frame further indicates: a second frequency allocation to be used by a third STA during the allocated time of the TXOP; and
a second identifier of a fourth STA as a target STA associated with a transmission from the third STA and during the allocated time of the TAOP via the second frequency allocation, as suggested by Cheridan. This modification would benefit the system by enabling multiple STAs to concurrently receive frequency allocation assignments.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Lou US 20220330344.
Yang teaches sending a trigger frame to the first STA (fig. 2 block 206, trigger frame indicating resource unit, [0054]); and
receiving a frame comprising the first identifier of the second / target STA (message indicating the direct wireless link, trigger frame, [0006]). Although Yang teaches receiving a frame comprising the first identifier of the second / target STA before receiving the trigger frame as opposed to after, this is not essential to the invention. What is relevant is the AP is informed by the STA of the target STA.
Yang is silent on the third frame further comprises at least one of: a Quality of Service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.
Lou teaches the AP receiving a frame comprising the Quality of Service (QoS) data frame ([0088]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by the AP receiving a frame comprising the Quality of Service (QoS) data frame, as shown by Lou. This modification would benefit the system by informing the AP of the desired QoS of the STA.
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Haider US 20230345300.
Yang is silent on the BSR associated with the P2P connection of the first STA with the second STA is indicated in at least one of: a Quality of Service (QoS) Control field, or a High Throughput (AT) Control field of the first frame.
Haider teaches the BSR associated with the P2P connection of the first STA with the second STA is indicated in at least one of: a Quality of Service (QoS) Control field, or a High Throughput (AT) Control field of the first frame (fig. 4, 5A-D, QoS, p2p traffic 474, [0066], [0107]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by the BSR associated with the P2P connection of the first STA with the second STA is indicated in a Quality of Service (QoS) Control field, as shown by Haider. This modification would benefit the system by enabling the STAs to report the status of their P2P traffic to the AP.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 1, 14 above, and further in view of Verma US 20200404549.
Yang is silent on determining the first frequency allocation, from: among a plurality of frequency allocations, associated with use by the first STA and during the allocated time of the TXOP.
Verma teaches determining the first frequency allocation, from: among a plurality of frequency allocations, associated with use by the first STA and during the allocated time of the TXOP (In some implementations, the first AP may allocate a unique portion of the frequency bandwidth to each of the selected APs for concurrent UL transmissions or concurrent DL transmissions during the TXOP obtained by the first AP, [0053, 0100]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by determining the first frequency allocation, from: among a plurality of frequency allocations, associated with use by the first STA and during the allocated time of the TXOP, as shown by Verma. This modification would benefit the system by providing an optimal frequency allocation to the STA.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang as applied to claims 21 above, and further in view of Damnjanovic US 20100070814.
Yang is silent on the sending the second frame is further based on the queue size, indicated by the BSR, being greater than zero.
Damnjanovic teaches sending the BSR based on the queue size, indicated by the BSR, being greater than zero (Thus, when the BSR retransmit timer expires, the UE 102 can determine whether there is still data in the uplink transmission buffer 106 (e.g., where the buffer size is greater than zero), and if so, can retransmit the BSR to the eNB 104, [0042]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the system of Yang by the sending the second frame is further based on the queue size, indicated by the BSR, being greater than zero, as suggested by 20100070814. This modification would benefit the system by enabling the UE to inform the base station of its current buffer size.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-20 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection for the independent claims has now been written as a 102 rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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