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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was received on Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was received on April 18, 2024 (4/18/2024). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been 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)(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 1-3, 5, 7-8, and 16-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guo et al. (US 2020/0374870).
Regarding Claim 1, Guo teaches A system for wireless communications, the system comprising data processing hardware; memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising (Par. [0042] “A thirteenth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a communications apparatus. The communications apparatus has functions of implementing behavior of the first access point AP or behavior of the second access point AP in the foregoing method design. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or the software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions. The modules may be software and/or hardware”),
receiving at a second access point from a first AP, an identity of a first receiving station and a first predicted signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the first STA, wherein the first STA is operable to receive a transmission from the first AP and the first predicted SINR is computed when the second AP begins transmitting (Figs. 1a, 1b, 2a, Par. [0012] “In a possible implementation, the first radio frame further carries one or more of the following: transmit power information of the second access point AP; information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first access point AP; identifier information of the first station STA; transmit power information of the first station STA; and transmit power information of the first access point AP. In this implementation, the first radio frame may further carry a plurality of other types of indication information, to add a multi-AP joint resource management function. Transmit power of the second access point AP and the transmit power information of the first access point may be coordinated, to effectively control interference of the first access point AP to the second station STA and interference of the second access point AP to the first station STA”), computing, at the second AP, a second predicted SINR at a second STA when the first AP begins transmitting (Par. [0012] “Transmit power of the second access point AP and the transmit power information of the first access point may be coordinated, to effectively control interference of the first access point AP to the second station STA and interference of the second access point AP to the first station STA...The identifier information of the first station STA and the transmit power information of the first station STA are indicated to the second access point AP, so that the second access point AP can predict a value of interference of the first station STA to the second access point AP, and the interference of the first station STA to the second access point AP can be effectively controlled”), computing at the second AP, a first transmit power back-off based on the first predicted SINR and the second predicted SINR (Par. [0111]“ Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information”), and determining at the second AP, one or more transmission parameters based on the first transmit power back-off (Par. [0111]“ The power indication information may be used by each second STA to determine maximum transmit power. In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP). The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission”).
Regarding Claim 2, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: initializing at the second AP, a spatial reuse transmission opportunity (SR TXOP) (Par. [0111] “In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP)”), and generating at the second AP, a spatial reuse (SR) transmission for transmission to the second STA (Par. [0111]” The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission. Therefore, the second AP may set a transmission parameter of the associated second STA based on the value of the SRP”).
Regarding Claim 3, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: identifying at the second AP, an identity of a second STA and a second predicted SINR at the second STA wherein the second STA is operable to receive a transmission from the second AP and; (Par. [0135], ”Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the seventh indication information and the eighth indication information, the second AP determines a value of interference of each first STA to the second AP based on the identifier information of the first STA in the seventh indication information and transmit power of the first STA in the eighth indication information.”), sending from the second AP to the first AP the identity of the second STA and the second predicted SINR (Par. [0113], “The resource scheduling information may include but is not limited to one or a combination of a plurality of the following information; resource block (resource unit, RU) allocation information of each second AP, identifier information (namely, identifier information of the second STA) of a station scheduled by the second AP, a modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS) used by each station, or a spatial stream used by each station” Par. [0134], “Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the sixth indication information, the second AP obtains the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP according to the sixth indication information, and determines power indication information of each second STA based on the information about the maximum interference threshold, so that each second STA determines the maximum transmit power of the second STA according to the power indication information, to be specific, transmit power of each second STA is controlled, so that the value of the interference of the second STA to the first AP is within a fourth value range”).
Regarding Claim 5, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: terminating, at the second AP, a spatial reuse transmission to match a transmission end of the transmission from the first AP (Par. [0009]” In a possible implementation, a sending time of the third radio frame is the same as the sending time of the second radio frame. In this implementation, the third radio frame and the second radio frame are sent at the same sending time, thereby reducing interference between the first access point AP and the second access point AP”).
Regarding Claim 7, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: determining, at the second AP, the first transmit power back-off based on one or more of background noise or a maximum receive error vector magnitude (EVM) (Par. [0111] ”Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information”).
Regarding Claim 8, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising wherein the one or more transmission parameters include one or more of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a transmission (Tx) power, or bandwidth (Par. [0113]” Optionally, to better perform radio resource management, the first AP may further perform centralized scheduling, to determine a transmission parameter of the second AP, to be specific, the first AP allocates and indicates resource scheduling information to the second AP. Therefore, the first radio frame may further carry tenth indication information, and the tenth indication information is used to indicate the resource scheduling information, so that the second AP determines, based on the resource scheduling information, a channel resource used to send the second radio frame. The resource scheduling information may include but is not limited to one or a combination of a plurality of the following information; resource block (resource unit, RU) allocation information of each second AP, identifier information (namely, identifier information of the second STA) of a station scheduled by the second AP, a modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS) used by each station, or a spatial stream used by each station”).
Regarding Claim 16, Guo teaches a system for wireless communication, the system comprising: data processing hardware; and memory hardware in communication with the data processing hardware, the memory hardware storing instructions that when executed on the data processing hardware cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising (Par. [0042] “A thirteenth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a communications apparatus. The communications apparatus has functions of implementing behavior of the first access point AP or behavior of the second access point AP in the foregoing method design. The functions may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or the software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions. The modules may be software and/or hardware”),
receiving, at a second access point (AP) from a first AP, an identity of a first receiving station (STA) operable to receive a transmission from the first AP and a predicted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the first STA; (Figs. 1a, 1b, 2a, Par. [0012] “In a possible implementation, the first radio frame further carries one or more of the following: transmit power information of the second access point AP; information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first access point AP; identifier information of the first station STA; transmit power information of the first station STA; and transmit power information of the first access point AP. In this implementation, the first radio frame may further carry a plurality of other types of indication information, to add a multi-AP joint resource management function. Transmit power of the second access point AP and the transmit power information of the first access point may be coordinated, to effectively control interference of the first access point AP to the second station STA and interference of the second access point AP to the first station STA”),
computing, at the second AP, a first predicted signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the first STA when the second AP begins transmitting; (Par. [0111] ”Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information”),
and computing, at the second AP, a transmit power back-off based on the predicted SNR and the first predicted SINR (Par. [0111]” The power indication information may be used by each second STA to determine maximum transmit power. In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP). The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission”).
Regarding Claim 17, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 16, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: initializing, at the second AP, a spatial reuse transmission opportunity (SR TXOP); (Par. [0111] “In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP)”), and generating, at the second AP, a spatial reuse (SR) transmission for transmission to a second STA (Par. [0111]” The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission. Therefore, the second AP may set a transmission parameter of the associated second STA based on the value of the SRP”).
Regarding Claim 18, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 16, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: determining, at the second AP, one or more transmission parameters to match a second predicted SINR at a second STA when the first AP is transmitting (Par. [0133] “Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the fifth indication information, the second AP obtains the transmit power information of the first AP according to the fifth indication information, so that the second AP predicts the value of the interference of the first AP to the associated second STA based on the transmit power information of the first AP”).
Regarding Claim 19, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 18, further comprising wherein the one or more transmission parameters include one or more of a modulation and coding scheme, a transmission (Tx) power, or a bandwidth (Par. [0134] ”In another optional manner, the second AP may indicate, to the second STA, the power indication information, for example, a maximum value of the interference of the second STA to the first AP, so that the second STA determines the maximum transmit power of the second STA according to the power indication information. To be specific, the second STA may directly obtain the maximum transmit power of the second STA by using the power indication information sent by the second AP, or may further calculate the maximum transmit power of the second STA according to the power indication information”).
Regarding Claim 20, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 16, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: computing, at the second AP, a path loss between the second AP and the first STA; ([0291] ”Therefore, the channel quality information of the target channel that is determined by the first STA may be the RSSI of the target AP, or may be the transmit power of the target AP, or may be a path loss (path loss) between the target AP and the first STA. Therefore, in this embodiment, the channel quality information of the target channel may include a plurality of types of content”), and computing, at the second AP, the transmit power back-off based on the path loss (Par. [0291] “Therefore, after receiving the radio frame sent by the target AP, the first STA determines the channel quality information of the target channel (namely, the channel between the first STA and the target AP) based on the radio frame. Specifically, the first STA may obtain a received signal strength indication (received signal strength indication, RSSI) of the target AP or transmit power of the target AP based on a measurement report of the target AP that is carried in the radio frame. Therefore, the channel quality information of the target channel that is determined by the first STA may be the RSSI of the target AP, or may be the transmit power of the target AP, or may be a path loss (path loss) between the target AP and the first STA”).
Regarding Claim 21, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 16, further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: computing, at the second AP, a transmit power back-off based on a ratio between the predicted SNR and the first predicted SINR (Par. [0021] ”Transmit power of the second access point AP and the transmit power information of the first access point may be coordinated, to effectively control interference of the first access point AP to the second station STA and interference of the second access point AP to the first station STA. The information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first access point AP is indicated to the second access point AP, so that the second access point AP controls transmit power of the second station STA, to prevent a value of interference of the second station STA to the first access point AP from exceeding the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first access point AP”).
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.
Claims 4 and 9-15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (US 2020/0374870) in view of Zhou et al. (2018/0103438).
Regarding Claim 4, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the second AP from the second STA, the second predicted SINR, (Par. [0012]” The identifier information of the first station STA and the transmit power information of the first station STA are indicated to the second access point AP, so that the second access point AP can predict a value of interference of the first station STA to the second access point AP, and the interference of the first station STA to the second access point AP can be effectively controlled,” Par. [0111] “Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information. The power indication information may be used by each second STA to determine maximum transmit power. In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP”). Guo fails to teach the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Zhou teaches sending, from the second AP to the first AP, a joint training transmission time (Par. [0049] ”The AP 104 may transmit on one or more channels (e.g., multiple narrowband channels, each channel including a frequency bandwidth) a beacon signal (or simply a “beacon”), via a communication link such as the downlink 108, to other nodes (STAs) of the wireless communication system 100. The beacon signal may help the other nodes (STAs) synchronize their timing with the AP 104. Alternatively or additionally, the beacon signal may provide other information or functionality. Such beacons may be transmitted periodically. In one aspect, the period between successive transmissions of a beacon may be referred to as a superframe. Transmission of a beacon may be divided into a number of groups or intervals. In one aspect, the beacon may include, but is not limited to, such information as timestamp information to set a common clock, a peer-to-peer network identifier, a device identifier, capability information, a superframe duration, transmission direction information, reception direction information, a neighbor list, and/or an extended neighbor list, some of which are described in additional detail below”), sending, from the second AP to the second STA, the joint training transmission time to compute the second predicted SINR (Fig. 3A, Par. [0061]” FIG. 3A illustrates an example frame structure in accordance with the techniques described herein. For example, FIG. 3A illustrates a frame 350 that may be used for transmitting information in a wireless network (e.g., wireless communication system 100 or wireless network 200). In some examples, the frame 350 may be used to transmit data or symbols (e.g., OFDM/OFDMA symbols) such as data symbols or training field symbols, which may include long training field (LTF) symbols and short training field (STF) symbols. The frame 350 may include a preamble and data. The preamble may be considered a header of the frame 350. The preamble may include information identifying a modulation and coding scheme, a transmission rate, and a length of time to transmit the frame 350, and other information,” Par. [0090] “The various frame structures depicted in FIGS. 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, and 6B may be included or other carried in a MAC header or a physical layer (PHY) header of a frame (e.g., a data frame or a control frame). Otherwise described, any transmit power related information described herein (such as the transmit power related information described with respect to FIGS. 3A, 3B, 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A, and 6B) may be included or otherwise carried in a MAC header or a physical layer (PHY) header of a frame (e.g., a data frame or a control frame) ... In some examples, the second device may be configured to more accurately determine the MCS by being configured to determine an SINR corresponding to the first device based on the transmit power related information received from the first device, thus making the SINR determination more accurate”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Zhou’s timeframe transmission used to compute the second predicted SINR with Guo’s system, in order to produce an expected improvement in predicting an SINR.
Regarding Claim 9, Guo teaches computing, at a first AP during the training transmission time, a first signal-to-interference-plus noise ratio (SINR) between the first AP and a first receiving station (STA); (Par. [0012] ”In a possible implementation, the first radio frame further carries one or more of the following: transmit power information of the second access point AP; information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first access point AP; identifier information of the first station STA; transmit power information of the first station STA; and transmit power information of the first access point AP. In this implementation, the first radio frame may further carry a plurality of other types of indication information, to add a multi-AP joint resource management function. Transmit power of the second access point AP and the transmit power information of the first access point may be coordinated, to effectively control interference of the first access point AP to the second station STA and interference of the second access point AP to the first station STA”), receiving, at a first AP from the second AP, a second SINR between the second AP and a second receiving STA; (Par. [0028] ”A fifth aspect of the embodiments of this application provides a channel information prediction method, including: receiving, by a first station STA, a broadcast frame from a first access point AP, where the broadcast frame includes identifier information of a second access point AP, the broadcast frame is used to trigger the first station STA to detect a channel between the second access point AP and the first station STA, and the first station STA is associated with the first access point AP; determining, by the first station STA, channel quality information of a target channel based on a received radio frame sent by a target AP, where the target channel is a channel between the target AP and the first station STA, and the target AP is included in the second access point AP; and sending, by the first station STA, a feedback frame to the first access point AP, where the feedback frame includes the channel quality information of the target channel”), computing, at the first AP, a first transmit power back-off; (Table 1, Par. [0196] ” Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the fifth indication information for indicating the transmit power information of the second AP, and the transmit power information may be maximum transmit power or transmit power configured by the first AP, when the second AP sends the third acknowledgement frame, used power cannot exceed the maximum transmit power of the second AP, or used power is the transmit power configured by the first AP”) receiving, at the first AP from the second AP, a second transmit power back-off; (Par. [0196] ” Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the fifth indication information for indicating the transmit power information of the second AP, and the transmit power information may be maximum transmit power or transmit power configured by the first AP, when the second AP sends the third acknowledgement frame, used power cannot exceed the maximum transmit power of the second AP, or used power is the transmit power configured by the first AP”) and computing, at the first AP, one or more first transmission parameters based on the first transmit power back-off and the second transmit power back-off, (Par. [0111] ”The power indication information may be used by each second STA to determine maximum transmit power. In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP). The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission”). Guo fails to teach the following, which in the same field of endeavor, Zhou teaches identifying, at a first access point (AP), a training transmission time, wherein the first AP is operable to transmit a first training transmission during the training transmission time and a second AP is operable to transmit a second training transmission during the training transmission time (Par. [0049] ” The AP 104 may transmit on one or more channels (e.g., multiple narrowband channels, each channel including a frequency bandwidth) a beacon signal (or simply a “beacon”), via a communication link such as the downlink 108, to other nodes (STAs) of the wireless communication system 100. The beacon signal may help the other nodes (STAs) synchronize their timing with the AP 104. Alternatively or additionally, the beacon signal may provide other information or functionality. Such beacons may be transmitted periodically. In one aspect, the period between successive transmissions of a beacon may be referred to as a superframe. Transmission of a beacon may be divided into a number of groups or intervals. In one aspect, the beacon may include, but is not limited to, such information as timestamp information to set a common clock, a peer-to-peer network identifier, a device identifier, capability information, a superframe duration, transmission direction information, reception direction information, a neighbor list, and/or an extended neighbor list, some of which are described in additional detail below”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Zhou’s method of identifying and training transmission time and then transmitting a training transmission during its respective time with Guo’s system of computing and receiving both a SINR and transmit power back-off in order to produce an expected reduction in interference between a first AP and a second AP.
Regarding Claim 10, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches comprising: receiving, at the first AP from the second AP, one or more second transmission parameters based on the first transmit power back-off and the second transmit power back-off (Par. [0134], ”Optionally, when the first radio frame includes the sixth indication information, the second AP obtains the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP according to the sixth indication information, and determines power indication information of each second STA based on the information about the maximum interference threshold, so that each second STA determines the maximum transmit power of the second STA according to the power indication information, to be specific, transmit power of each second STA is controlled, so that the value of the interference of the second STA to the first AP is within a fourth value range. Therefore, in this embodiment, transmit power used when the second STA sends a BA in response to the second radio frame cannot exceed the maximum transmit power of the second STA”).
Regarding Claim 11, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches initializing, at the first AP, a transmission opportunity (TXOP); (Par. [0111]” In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP)”), and generating, at the first AP, a transmission to the first STA (Figs. 1A, 1B, Par. [0148]” After sending the first radio frame to the second AP, the first AP sends, in the sending period of the second radio frame, the third radio frame to the first STA associated with the first AP”).
Regarding Claim 12, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches determining, at the first AP, the one or more first transmission parameters based on a weighted average of the first SINR and the second SINR (Par. [0111]” Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information. The power indication information may be used by each second STA to determine maximum transmit power. In addition, the power indication information may be included in the second radio frame sent by the second AP to the second STA. In a possible implementation, the information about the maximum tolerable interference threshold may be a value of a spatial reuse parameter (spatial reuse parameter, SRP). The SRP may be used by the second AP to adjust transmit power during spatial reuse transmission. Therefore, the second AP may set a transmission parameter of the associated second STA based on the value of the SRP. Correspondingly, to enable the second AP to predict, before sending the second radio frame, a value of interference of the first STA to the second AP when the second AP receives the radio frame sent by the second STA, the first radio frame may carry seventh indication information and eighth indication information, the seventh indication information is used to indicate identifier information of the first STA, and the eighth indication information is used to indicate transmit power information of the first STA”).
Regarding Claim 13, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches terminating, at the second AP, a spatial reuse transmission to match a transmission end of a transmission from the first AP (Par. [0009]” In a possible implementation, a sending time of the third radio frame is the same as the sending time of the second radio frame. In this implementation, the third radio frame and the second radio frame are sent at the same sending time, thereby reducing interference between the first access point AP and the second access point AP”).
Regarding Claim 14, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches determining, at the first AP, the first transmit power back-off based on one or more of background noise or a maximum receive error vector magnitude (EVM) (Par. [0111]” Optionally, to reduce interference of the second STA to the first AP, the first radio frame may carry sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate information about a maximum tolerable interference threshold for the first AP, so that the second AP determines power indication information of each associated second STA based on the sixth indication information”).
Regarding Claim 15, Guo combined with Zhou teaches the invention of Claim 9 where Guo further teaches wherein the one or more first transmission parameters include one or more of a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a transmission (Tx) power, or a bandwidth. (Par. [0113]” Optionally, to better perform radio resource management, the first AP may further perform centralized scheduling, to determine a transmission parameter of the second AP, to be specific, the first AP allocates and indicates resource scheduling information to the second AP. Therefore, the first radio frame may further carry tenth indication information, and the tenth indication information is used to indicate the resource scheduling information, so that the second AP determines, based on the resource scheduling information, a channel resource used to send the second radio frame. The resource scheduling information may include but is not limited to one or a combination of a plurality of the following information; resource block (resource unit, RU) allocation information of each second AP, identifier information (namely, identifier information of the second STA) of a station scheduled by the second AP, a modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS) used by each station, or a spatial stream used by each station”).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo et al. (US 2020/0374870) in view of Haider et al. (US 2021/0360691).
Regarding Claim 6, Guo teaches the invention of Claim 1, which in the same field of endeavor, Haider teaches the system further comprising instructions that cause the data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: identify, at the second AP, a spatial reuse transmission failure, (Par. [0041],” In some embodiments, the process then provides for dynamic adaptation of the CCS threshold for the OBSS based at least in part on the success or failure of the SR transmission 448”), and perform, at the second AP: a subsequent channel access without using spatial reuse, or adapt a spatial reuse rate to avoid interference with the first AP (Par. [0061], ”In some embodiments, a method includes providing service by an access point to a plurality of client devices in a basic service set within a network environment; receiving a packet at the access point; determining a source of the packet based on a BSS color or BSS identification obtained from the packet; upon determining that the source of the packet is within the BSS, utilizing a default clear channel assessment (CCA) value in in an operation for transmission to a client device of the plurality of client devices; and upon determining that the source of the packet is with a first overlapping BSS (OBSS), utilizing a current value of CCA threshold value for the first OBSS in a spatial reuse operation for transmission to a first client device, the first client device having a highest estimated signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) value of the plurality of client devices, wherein the CCA threshold value for the first OBSS is a dynamically adjusted value based at least in part on success or failure of data transmission between the access point and the first client device”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Haider’s embodiments of spatial reuse with the system of Guo, in order to produce an expected and enhanced spatial reuse of radio spectrum in WLAN operation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Jeon et al. (US 2020/0221307) teaches “In various embodiments, the network entity may be the receiver of coordination request message(s) from neighbor network entity(ies) and may use power information from the coordination request message to determine the potential of interference to the other neighbor network entity(ies). For example, the network entity may determine whether the neighbor network entity is within an interference range of the network entity based on the received coordination request message and the intended transmission power of the network entity. In one example, the network entity performs this determination by comparing at least a receive power of a signal (i.e., receive power plus potentially the power threshold if used by the neighbor network entity) for the received coordination request message with a threshold. This threshold is a function of the intended transmission power of the network entity, for example, the intended transmission power of the network entity may be scaled as a function of the amount of signal power loss that may occur between the two network entities and may include an additional threshold to reduce the chances of interference (e.g., as discussed above with regard to FIG. 16)” (Par. [0140]).
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/J.N.D./Examiner, Art Unit 2641
/MARGARET G WEBB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641