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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 43-44, 77, 78 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU et al (US 2019/0238195) in view of ZHOU et al (US 2020/0169964).
Regarding claim 43, 77, 78, LIU et al (US 2019/0238195) method for signaling a plurality of different spatial stream encoding values by a first station (STA) device to a second STA device in a wireless local area network in accordance with IEEE 802.11 protocol (LIU: ¶3, a wireless local area network in accordance with 802.11), comprising:
generating, by the first STA device, a signaling field in a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) which directly or indirectly identifies a plurality of different modulation and coding selection (MCS) values or different modulation orders used to encode different spatial streams from a plurality of spatial streams Nss used in a MIMO transmission of a data packet for each scheduled user of the PPDU (LIU: ¶30, ¶32-33, an PPDU has MCS and spatial stream among multiple steams information for each of the user (user of the STA) scheduled by the MU-PPDU).
LIU remains silent regarding the network being personal area network.
However, ZHOU et al (US 2020/0169964) discloses network being personal area network (ZHOU: ¶36, personal area network).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU would have been motivated to use the teachings of ZHOU as it provides additional short-range wireless connectivity improving further expandability in a smaller area. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU with teachings of ZHOU in order to improve expandability of the network in a smaller area.
Regaridng claim 44, LIU modified ZHOU discloses method of claim 43, where the signaling field is part of a dedicated user information field (LIU: ¶34, user specific field).
Claim(s) 45-48, 50, 58-59, 61-66, 70, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU et al (US 2019/0238195) in view of ZHOU et al (US 2020/0169964) as applied to claim 44 above, further in view of BAE et al (US 2022/0191560)
Regarding claim 45, LIU modified ZHOU discloses method of claim 44, where the dedicated user information field comprises an M-bit Nss field to indicate the total number of spatial streams and an N-bit MCS field to indicate a MCS value (LIU: ¶35, a field for number of spatial streams and a field to indicate MCS), and a field to indicate unequal modulation values for each scheduled user for non-TB (trigger-based) transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶36, unequal MCSs assigned to different users; ¶35, decoding non-trigger based data transmission based on the unequal MCSs).
LIU modified by ZHOU remains silent regarding the MCS being a base MCS value and includes a K-bit additional MCS field.
However, BAE et al (US) discloses the MCS being a base MCS value and includes a K-bit additional MCS field (BAE: Table 3 ¶264-265, base and differential (additional) MCS values in their fields are present).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified by ZHOU would have been motivated to use the teachings of BAE as it conserves 12 bits in the MCS field. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified by ZHOU with teachings of BAE in order to improve header information conservation (¶265).
Regarding claim 46, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE discloses method of claim 45, where the additional MCS field indicates if equal modulation or unequal modulation/MCS is used among multiple streams (LIU: ¶36, unequal MCSs; ZHOU: ¶265, an additional bit for number of streams indicating multiple streams).
Regarding claim 47, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE discloses method of claim 45, where the base MCS value indicates an MCS value of all spatial streams if additional MCS field indicates equal modulation (LIU: ¶38, equal MCS; ZHOU: ¶265, base MCS indicates an based MCS common for all the spatial streams indicated by the last two bits in the MCS field).
Regarding claim 48, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE discloses method of claim 45, where the base MCS value indicates an MCS value of a first spatial stream if additional MCS field indicates unequal modulation (LIU: ¶38, equal MCS and unequal MCSs where, additional MCS field has unequal; ZHOU: ¶265, base MCS indicate at least one stream out of three (3) which is the first stream).
Regarding claim 50, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE discloses method of claim 45, where the additional MCS field is encoded as MCS values for all spatial streams with stream index nss=2, …Nss (ZHOU: ¶265, base MCS indicate at least one stream out of three (3) which is the first stream; the remaining, which is 2…Nss, streams are in an additional/differential field).
Regarding claim 58, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 45, where the additional MCS field has a variable length that is dependent on a total number of spatial streams NSS for each scheduled user indicated in the M-bit NSS field (LIU: ¶48, ¶44, based on the number of spatial stream and corresponding MCS allocated to the STA, the field size is increased by the number of MCSs and the spatial streams).
Regarding claim 59, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 45, where the additional MCS field has a fixed length for any number of spatial streams for each scheduled user (ZHOU: ¶265, base MCS indicate at least one stream out of three (3) which is the first stream; the remaining, which is 2…Nss, streams are in an additional/differential field).
Regarding claim 61, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 44, where the dedicated user information field comprises an M-bit NSS field to indicate a total number of spatial streams and an N-bit MCS field to indicate a MCS value and one MCS type bit to indicate a modulation type for each scheduled user for Non-TB transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶35, ¶42, ¶47, a field for number of spatial streams and a field to indicate MCS value and type for each scheduled user for receiving downlink data in the PPDU; 35, decoding non-trigger based data transmission based on the MCSs).
Regarding claim 62, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 61, where the N-bit MCS field is encoded as the MCS value for all spatial streams if the MCS type bit indicates equal MCS for all spatial streams (LIU: ¶38, ¶45, equal MCS i.e. same for STAs, also same type; the MCS bit type is interpreted as the bit indicating that reserved bit for the unequal MCS is not set).
Regarding claim 63, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 61, , where the N-bit MCS field is encoded as unequal modulation orders for all spatial streams with stream index nss=1,…Nss if the MCS type bit indicates unequal modulation for all spatial streams (LIU: ¶45-47, unequal MCSs, different for each of the STAs; the MCS bit type is interpreted as the bit indicating that reserved bit for the unequal MCS is set).
Regarding claim 64, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 61, where the N-bit MCS field is encoded as unequal MCS for all spatial streams with stream index nss=1,---NSS if the MCS type bit indicates unequal MCS for all spatial streams (LIU: ¶45-47, unequal MCSs, different for each of the STAs; the MCS bit type is interpreted as the bit indicating that reserved bit for the unequal MCS is set).
Regarding claim 65, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 63, where the MCS field signals additional new MCS values for all spatial streams (LIU: ¶45-47, unequal MCSs, different for each of the STAs; BAE: ¶265, the MCS field indicates new MCS values).
Regarding claim 66, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 63, where the MCS field indicates multi-stream unequal modulation values dependent on a total number of spatial streams signaled by the Nss field (LIU: ¶48, ¶44, based on the number of spatial stream and corresponding MCS allocated to the STA, the field size is increased by the number of MCSs and the spatial streams).
Regarding claim 70, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 44, where one MCS type bit is defined in the dedicated user information field to indicate if additional MCS values are used for each scheduled user for UL TB transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶30, ¶33, ¶41, ¶9, trigger frame includes indication of triggering uplink transmission using the MCS for the scheduled STA).
Claim(s) 49, 51-52, 54-57, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU modified by ZHOU modified by BAE et al (US 2022/0191560) as applied to claim 45 above, further in view of HANDTE et al (US 2019/0305996)
Regarding claim 49, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE discloses method of claim 45, where the additional MCS field is of all spatial streams with stream index nss=2,…,Nss (ZHOU: ¶265, base MCS indicate at least one stream out of three (3) which is the first stream and differential MCSs are for 2nd and 3rd SSs).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding MCS field being encoded as modulation orders.
However, HANDTE et al (US 2019/0305996) discloses MCS field being encoded as modulation orders (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE would have been motivated to use the teachings of HANDTE as it provides a more direct and explicit indication of the modulation scheme which minimizes receiver processing. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE with teachings of HANDTE in order to reduce receiver processing to determine a corresponding modulation order from an MCS value.
Regarding claim 51, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE discloses method of claim 49, where the modulation orders for all streams with stream index nss=2,---,Nss, are encoded as differential modulation order relative to a modulation order of a first spatial stream, for each individual spatial stream (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order relative to the base modulation order (of the first spatial stream)).
Regarding claim 52, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE discloses method of claim 51, where the additional MCS field indicates a limited number of differential modulation orders of all spatial streams with stream index nss=2,…,Nss (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order relative to the base modulation order; ¶77, maximum number of streams and their corresponding differential modulation orders are supported).
Regarding claim 54, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE discloses method of claim 52, where a maximum differential modulation order is limited to 1 (LIU: ¶45, only one/equal MCS and corresponding modulation order is used when no unequal MCS is used).
Regarding claim 55, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE discloses method of claim 52, where number of different modulation order is limited to 3 (BAE: ¶264, maximum MCS is 3 as spatial streams are 3).
Regarding claim 56, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE discloses method of claim 49, where different modulation orders for all streams with stream index nss= 2,…,Nss, is signaled as a differential modulation order relative to a neighboring spatial stream (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order relative to the base modulation order (of the first spatial stream equivalent to a neighboring spatial stream)).
Regarding claim 57, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE method of claim 49, where different modulation orders are signaled as an absolute modulation order for all streams with stream index nss=2,---,Nss (LIU: ¶35-36, each user field includes absolute MCS information for that user HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order).
Claim(s) 53, 60, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE as applied to claim 45 above, further in view of MINOTANI et al (US 20260222145)
Regarding claim 53, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 52 where a maximum differential modulation order is set (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order relative to the base modulation order; ¶77, maximum number of streams and their corresponding differential modulation orders are supported)
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding, however, MINOTANI discloses maximum is limited to 2 (MINOTANI: Fig. 17, ¶112, maximum two streams hence two modulation orders).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Regarding claim 60, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE method of claim 49, using the dedicated user information field (LIU: ¶30, user specific field), and where the additional MCS field is repurposed with the reserved or validated bits from the format of the user information field (LIU: ¶38, ¶53, additional indication using the reserved field).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE remains silent regarding that the dedicated user information field has a length and format of an EHT-SIG user information field.
However, MINOTANI et al (US 20260222145) discloses the dedicated user information field has a length and format of an EHT-SIG user information field (MINOTANI: Fig. 19, ¶118, EHT-SIG format and length is used for user information field).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Claim(s) 67-69, 71-73, 75-76, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE as applied to claim 45 above, further in view of MINOTANI et al (US 20260222145)
Regarding claim 67, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 63, method of claim 66, where the MCS field signals for unequal modulation for each scheduled user for Non-TB transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶36, unequal MCSs assigned to different users; ¶35, decoding non-trigger based data transmission based on the unequal MCSs).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding, however, MINOTANI discloses each where the MCS field signals an MCS index value for a first unequal modulation MCS table with a plurality of entries, each entry specifying unique unequal modulation order combinations for two spatial streams used for data transmission (MINOTANI: Fig. 22, Fig. 28, Fig. 14, ¶166-169, ¶102-103, ¶134, ¶52, for each STA, there is NLTF s for each MCS index; at least three spatial streams used for data transmission )
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Regarding claim 68, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 63, method of claim 66, where the MCS field signals for unequal modulation for each scheduled user for Non-TB transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶36, unequal MCSs assigned to different users; ¶35, decoding non-trigger based data transmission based on the unequal MCSs).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding, however, MINOTANI discloses each where the MCS field signals an MCS index value for a second unequal modulation MCS table with a plurality of entries, each entry specifying unique unequal modulation order combinations for three spatial streams used for data transmission (MINOTANI: Fig. 22, Fig. 28, Fig. 14, ¶166-169, ¶102-103, ¶134, ¶52, for each STA, there is NLTF s for each MCS index; at least three spatial streams used for data transmission )
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Regarding claim 69, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 63, method of claim 66, where the MCS field signals for unequal modulation for each scheduled user for Non-TB transmission of the data packet (LIU: ¶36, unequal MCSs assigned to different users; ¶35, decoding non-trigger based data transmission based on the unequal MCSs).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding, however, MINOTANI discloses each where the MCS field signals an MCS index value for a third unequal modulation MCS table with a plurality of entries, each entry specifying unique unequal modulation order combinations for four spatial streams used for data transmission (MINOTANI: Fig. 22, Fig. 28, Fig. 14, ¶166-169, ¶102-103, ¶134, ¶52, for each STA, there is NLTF s for each MCS index; at least four spatial streams used for data transmission )
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by HANDTE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Regarding claim 71, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE method of claim 70, where the dedicated user information field has a length and format of an trigger frame user information field, and where the MCS type bit is one reserved bit from the format of the trigger frame user information field (LIU: ¶42, ¶45, trigger frame has a user information field with the MCS type; reserved bit is used for indicate type at least implicitly).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE remains silent regarding that the trigger frame is an EHT trigger frame.
However, MINOTANI et al (US 20260222145) discloses that the trigger frame is an EHT trigger frame (MINOTANI: Fig. 19, ¶118, EHT-SIG format and length is used for user information field).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE would have been motivated to use the teachings of MINOTANI at provides backward forward signaling organization and enables MU-MIMO scheduling with higher efficiency. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE with teachings of MINOTANI in order to improve organizing data in PPDU.
Regarding claim 72, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI method of claim 71, where the dedicated user information field comprises one or more repurposed bits that are defined to signal the additional new MCS values for all spatial streams jointly with a MCS field (LIU: ¶42, ¶45, trigger frame has a user information field with the MCS type; reserved bit is used to indicate type at least implicitly; BAE: ¶265, the MCS field indicates new MCS values).
Regarding claim 73, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI method of claim 72, where the MCS field indicates a base MCS value, and the one or more repurposed bits indicate a differential MCS value for each spatial stream pair with stream index nss=2,---,Nss (BAE: Table 3 ¶264-265, base and differential (additional) MCS values in their fields are present; BAE: ¶265, all spatial streams are signaled in an MCS field).
Regarding claim 75, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI method of claim 74, where the dedicated user information field comprises a MCS field that is repurposed to signal additional new MCS values for all spatial streams if additional new MCS values are indicated by the one reserved bit (LIU: ¶35, a field for number of spatial streams and a field to indicate MCS; LIU: ¶38, ¶53, additional indication using the reserved fiel; BAE: ¶265, all spatial streams are signaled in an MCS field).
Regarding claim 76, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI method of claim 75, where the MCS field indicates additional new MCS values differently for each specific total number of spatial streams signaled by the Nss field (BAE: Table 3 ¶264-265, base and differential (additional) MCS values in their fields are present; BAE: ¶265, all spatial streams are signaled in an MCS field).
Claim(s) 74 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LIU modified by ZHOU modified by BAE et al (US 2022/0191560) as applied to claim 45 above, further in view of HANDTE et al (US 2019/0305996)
Regarding claim 74, LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI method of claim 72, where the MCS field indicates a base MCS value, and the one or more repurposed bits indicate a differential modulation for each spatial stream pair with stream index nss=2,---,Nss (BAE: Table 3 ¶264-265, base and differential (additional) MCS values in their fields are present; BAE: ¶265, all spatial streams are signaled in an MCS field)).
LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI remains silent, however, HANDTE et al discloses modulation being a modulation order (HANDTE: Table 7, ¶76, MCS field encoded as modulation order relative to the base modulation order (of the first spatial stream))
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI would have been motivated to use the teachings of HANDTE as it provides a more direct and explicit indication of the modulation scheme which minimizes receiver processing. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of LIU modified ZHOU modified by BAE modified by MINOTANI with teachings of HANDTE in order to reduce receiver processing to determine a corresponding modulation order from an MCS value.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
See attached PTO-892
Document U discloses valuate the efficiency of multi-user downlink transmissions in a residential scenario. It compares IEEE 802.11ac with IEEE 802.11ax, to see how Wi-Fi 5 performs and how the new Wi-Fi 6 enhancements better cope with this intensive use scenario.
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OMER S. MIAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2461
/OMER S MIAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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