DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to claim amendment filed on May 1, 2026.
Claims 1-3, 5, 11-13 and 15 have been amended.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments and remarks with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-4, 6-14 and 16-20 under 35 U.S.C. §103 have been fully considered and is persuasive (see remarks Pg. 8-11). However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made as necessitated by the claim amendments.
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.
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 non-obviousness.
Claim(s) 1-2, 11-12, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerner et al., US 10666345 B1, (hereinafter Kerner) in view of Li et al., US 11711154 B2, (hereinafter Li) and in further view of Liu et al. US 20090060006 A1 (hereinafter Liu), LEE et al., KR 20200098003 A (see the English translated copy), (hereinafter LEE) and Jakubov et al., US 20180234358 A1 (hereinafter Jakubov).
Regarding claim 1, 11, Kerner teaches a wireless communication method comprising:
deriving a first received signal at a target channel from a first radio-frequency (RF) signal received through a first antenna (see Col. 2, lines 53-58, e.g., The WLAN may operate in several different frequency bands of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. For example, the frequency bands may include, but are not limited to, the 900 megahertz (MHz), 2.4 gigahertz (GHz), 3.6 GHz, 4.9 GHz, 5 GHz, 5.9 GHz, 60 GHz bands, etc. Each band may include a plurality of channels; see Col. 4, lines 61-65, e.g., The packet detection engine 235 may monitor the signals received at various antennas and determine whether an indication of a packet is present; see Col. 7, lines 29-31, e.g., Here, y.sub.1 represents the received signal at a first receive antenna and y.sub.2 represents the received signal at a second receive antenna); and
performing a first packet detection operation for detecting if a packet is included in the first received signal by jointly considering the plurality of different parameters of the first received signal (see Col. 4, lines 61-65, e.g., the processor 205 may execute a packet detection engine 235. The packet detection engine 235 may monitor the signals received at various antennas and determine whether an indication of a packet is present; see Col. 1, lines 42-55, e.g., The operations comprising determining a first combined signal parameter based on a first signal received at two or more of the plurality of receive antennas. The operations further comprising, detecting a packet based on at least identifying a correlation between the first combined signal parameter.),
however, it does not explicitly teach deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the first received signal and
deriving a first received signal at a target channel,
wherein the plurality of different parameters comprise a first parameter and a second parameter,
a first value of the first parameter derived under presence of the packet in the first received signal is greater than a second value of the first parameter derived under absence of the packet in the first received signal, and
a third value of the second parameter derived under presence of the packet in the first received signal is less than a fourth value of the second parameter derived under absence of the packet in the first received signal;
in response to the first parameter having the first value and the second parameter having the third value, determining that the packet is detected.
Li teaches deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the first received signal (see Col. 3-4, lines 66-67; 1-7, e.g., the RSSI value statistical result of the signal on the unlicensed frequency further includes at least one of or a combination of the following information: a total quantity of the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments included in the at least one statistical window, the sampling interval at which the signal on the unlicensed frequency is sampled, an average value of the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments).
Liu teaches deriving a first received signal at a target channel (see ¶ [0041], e.g., advantage of the present invention is that the detecting mechanism starts immediately when a packet of the input signal is detected, and can take as little as 100 ns for the proposed signal quality detecting unit to detect an in-band OFDM signal or 45 ns to detect an in-band CCK signal. (Note that, as per current specification target channel is i.e., in-band channel.)).
LEE teaches a first value of the first parameter derived under presence of the packet in the first received signal is greater than a second value of the first parameter derived under absence of the packet in the first received signal (see ¶ [0032], e.g., the data packet receiving unit (210) determines that a data packet has been detected at the moment when the value displayed on the RSSI of the communication channel increases rapidly.).
Jakubov teaches a third value of the second parameter derived under presence of the packet in the first received signal is less than a fourth value of the second parameter derived under absence of the packet in the first received signal (see ¶ [0048], e.g., packet detection in BLR, BLE and other low energy communication protocols. A difference between BLR as compared to classic Bluetooth is that the packets are received at significantly lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, the SNR at which the wireless communication device 102 operates may be below 0 dB. That means the power of the received noise is larger than or equal to the power of the received signal),
in response to the first parameter having the first value and the second parameter having the third value, determining that the packet is detected (see ¶ [0008], e.g., Detecting the Bluetooth packet may include determining that a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of the received signal is greater than an RSSI threshold; see ¶ [0080] - ¶ [0083], e.g., For low SNR conditions where the packet is not detected, a dynamic detection threshold 126 may be sufficient to detect a main peak. Therefore, if the preamble detector 114 does not detect a preamble, then the wireless communication device 102 may assume that low SNR conditions are present. In this low SNR case, the side lobes are not a problem. To detect the packet, the wireless communication device 102 may keep a dynamic thresholding algorithm running without disabling the packet detector 122.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified parameters of the first received signal of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Li to include deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the first received signal and incorporate the teachings of Liu to include deriving a first received signal at a target channel and incorporate the teachings of LEE and Jakubov to include data packet detection at high value of RSSI and low value of SNR. Doing so would facilitate in achieving improved accuracy of an RSSI value which helps base station for selecting an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange as suggested by Li (see Col. 12, lines 46-53, e.g., an RSSI value statistical result of a signal on the unlicensed frequency may be obtained, so that the base station selects an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange between the user equipment and the base station. The signal processing method can improve accuracy of an RSSI value according to which the base station serving the user equipment selects the idle unlicensed frequency.) and high probability of packet detection at low SNR as suggested by Jakubov (see ¶ [0083], e.g., False alarms for high SNR conditions are practically eliminated. A high probability of detection at low SNR is achieved using cross-correlation-based packet detection).
Regarding claim 2 and 12, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 1 and 11.
Kerner does not teach but Li teaches, wherein deriving the plurality of different parameters from the signal strength of the first received signal comprises:
referring to a plurality of samples of the first received signal for calculating a receive signal strength indication (RSSI) value as a first parameter included in the plurality of different parameters (see Col. 3-4, lines 66-67; 1-7, e.g., obtaining the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments includes: sampling, by the user equipment, for the signal on the unlicensed frequency, the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling interval according to the time length of the sampling window and the sampling window period, and obtaining the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified parameters of the first received signal of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Li and include referring to a plurality of samples of the first received signal for calculating a receive signal strength indication (RSSI) value as a first parameter included in the plurality of different parameters. Doing so would facilitate in achieving improved accuracy of an RSSI value which helps base station for selecting an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange as suggested by Li (see Col. 12, lines 46-53, e.g., an RSSI value statistical result of a signal on the unlicensed frequency may be obtained, so that the base station selects an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange between the user equipment and the base station. The signal processing method can improve accuracy of an RSSI value according to which the base station serving the user equipment selects the idle unlicensed frequency.).
Regarding claim 6, 16, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 1 and 11.
Kerner further teaches, deriving a second received signal at the target channel from the RF signal received through a second antenna (see Col. 4, lines 61-65, e.g., The packet detection engine 235 may monitor the signals received at various antennas and determine whether an indication of a packet is present. Col. 7, lines 29-31, e.g., Here, y.sub.1 represents the received signal at a first receive antenna and y.sub.2 represents the received signal at a second receive antenna); and
performing a second packet detection operation for detecting if a packet is included in the second received signal by jointly considering the plurality of different parameters of the second received signal (Col. 4, lines 61-65, e.g., the processor 205 may execute a packet detection engine 235. The packet detection engine 235 may monitor the signals received at various antennas and determine whether an indication of a packet is present. Col. 1, lines 61-67, e.g., The operations further comprising, determining a second combined signal parameter based on a second signal received at the two or more receiver antennas. The operations further comprising, detecting a packet based at least on identifying a correlation between the first combined signal parameter and the second combined signal parameter),
however, it does not explicitly teach deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the second received signal and deriving a second received signal at a target channel.
Li teaches deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the second received signal (see Col. 3-4, lines 66-67; 1-7, e.g., the RSSI value statistical result of the signal on the unlicensed frequency further includes at least one of or a combination of the following information: a total quantity of the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments included in the at least one statistical window, the sampling interval at which the signal on the unlicensed frequency is sampled, an average value of the RSSI values of the signal on the unlicensed frequency at the sampling moments).
Liu teaches deriving a second received signal at a target channel (¶ [0041], e.g., advantage of the present invention is that the detecting mechanism starts immediately when a packet of the input signal is detected, and can take as little as 100 ns for the proposed signal quality detecting unit to detect an in-band OFDM signal or 45 ns to detect an in-band CCK signal. (Note that, as per current specification target channel is i.e., in-band channel.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified parameters of the first received signal of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Li to include deriving a plurality of different parameters from signal strength of the first received signal and incorporate the teachings of Liu to include deriving a first received signal at a target channel. Doing so would facilitate in achieving improved accuracy of an RSSI value which helps base station for selecting an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange as suggested by Li (see Col. 12, lines 46-53, e.g., an RSSI value statistical result of a signal on the unlicensed frequency may be obtained, so that the base station selects an idle unlicensed frequency as a carrier for information exchange between the user equipment and the base station. The signal processing method can improve accuracy of an RSSI value according to which the base station serving the user equipment selects the idle unlicensed frequency.).
Claim(s) 3-4, 8 and 13-14, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerner in view of Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov and in further view of Mayor et al., US 9401769 B2, (hereinafter Mayor).
Regarding claim 3, 13, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 2 and 12.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Mayor teaches, wherein deriving the plurality of different parameters from the signal strength of the first received signal further comprises:
calculating a variance value of the plurality of samples, wherein a second parameter included in the plurality of different parameters is derived from at least the variance value. (see Col. 12, lines 29-34, e.g., processing circuitry 28 may gather a set of statistics (e.g., a mean value, variance value, standard deviation, range, median value, etc.) associated with each generated probability distribution (e.g., circuitry 28 may gather a respective set of statistics associated with radio-frequency signals received in each frequency channel); see Col. 18, lines 27-32, e.g., an RSSI threshold may be identified for each accumulated probability distribution. The RSSI threshold may, if desired, be determined based on the set of statistics associated with the accumulated probability distribution (e.g., the threshold may be computed based on a variance or standard deviation of the probability distribution).).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified parameters of the first received signal of Kerner improved by Li to incorporate the teachings of Mayor and include calculating a variance value of the plurality of samples, wherein a second parameter included in the plurality of different parameters is derived from at least the variance value. Doing so would facilitate in achieving generating calibrated receive signal strength data and also determine a location of the wireless electronic device using this calibrated data as suggested by Mayor (see Col. 1, lines 59-65, e.g., the processing circuitry may determine an offset value for each of the probability distributions and may add the offset value to the gathered receive signal strength data to generate calibrated receive signal strength data. If desired, the processing circuitry may determine a location of the wireless electronic device using the calibrated receive signal strength data.).
Regarding claim 4, 14, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 3 and 13.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Mayor teaches, wherein deriving the plurality of different parameters from the signal strength of the first received signal further comprises:
dividing the variance value by the RSSI value to generate a normalized variance value as the second parameter (see Col. 12, lines 29-34, e.g., processing circuitry 28 may gather a set of statistics (e.g., a mean value, variance value, standard deviation, range, median value, etc.) associated with each generated probability distribution (e.g., circuitry 28 may gather a respective set of statistics associated with radio-frequency signals received in each frequency channel). (Note that, standard deviation value is normalized variance value)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified parameters of the first received signal of Kerner improved by Li to incorporate the teachings of Mayor to include dividing the variance value by the RSSI value to generate a normalized variance value as the second parameter. Doing so would facilitate in achieving generating calibrated receive signal strength data and also determine a location of the wireless electronic device using this calibrated data as suggested by Mayor (see Col. 1, lines 59-65, e.g., the processing circuitry may determine an offset value for each of the probability distributions and may add the offset value to the gathered receive signal strength data to generate calibrated receive signal strength data. If desired, the processing circuitry may determine a location of the wireless electronic device using the calibrated receive signal strength data.).
Regarding claim 8, 18, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 3 and 13.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Mayor teaches, wherein the wireless communication method is employed by a Bluetooth receiver (see Col. 7, lines 41-50, e.g., If desired, each transceiver in transceiver circuitry 76 such as transceivers 82 and 84 may be formed as a part of satellite data receiver 36, WiFi® and Bluetooth® transceiver 38, or cellular telephone transceiver 40 of FIG. 1 (e.g., a first transceiver in circuitry 76 may handle received satellite data signals, a second transceiver in circuitry 76 may handle WiFi® data signals, a third transceiver in circuitry 76 may handle Bluetooth® data signals, a fourth transceiver in circuitry 76 may handle cellular data signals, etc.).).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified receiver of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Mayor to include a Bluetooth receiver. Doing so would facilitate in achieving support interactions with external equipment such as base station 14, storage and processing circuitry as suggested by Mayor (see Col. 4, lines 1-9, e.g., To support interactions with external equipment such as base station 14, storage and processing circuitry 28 may be used in implementing communications protocols. Communications protocols that may be implemented using storage and processing circuitry 28 include internet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as WiFi®), protocols for other short-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth® protocol, IEEE 802.16 (WiMax) protocols).
Claim(s) 7 and 17, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerner in view of Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov and in further view of TANG, CN 114978270 B (see the English translated copy), (hereinafter TANG).
Regarding claim 7, 17, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 1 and 11.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Tang teaches, selecting a target antenna from multiple antennas including the first antenna and the second antenna according to parameters including the plurality of different parameters of the first received signal and the plurality of different parameters of the second received signal (see Pg. 3, Paragraph 10-15 e.g.,
determining a difference between the first simulated radiation power and the second simulated radiation power; if the difference is greater than or equal to a preset difference threshold, determining the second antenna as the target antenna; if the difference value is less than the preset difference value threshold value, determining the first antenna as the target antenna.
In the above antenna selection method, after determining the second antenna as the target antenna, the method further comprises: using the antenna switching switch to switch the antenna for receiving and transmitting the current signal from the first antenna to the second antenna, and using the second antenna to receive and transmit the radio frequency signal.
In the above antenna selection method, the signal quality parameter includes a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and a reference signal received power (RSRP)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified target antenna of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Tang to include selecting a target antenna from multiple antennas including the first antenna and the second antenna according to parameters including the plurality of different parameters of the first received signal and the plurality of different parameters of the second received signal. Doing so would facilitate in achieving support interactions with external equipment such as base station 14, storage and processing circuitry as suggested by Tang (see Pg. 2, Paragraph 4 e.g., the invention claims an antenna selecting method, an electronic device and a storage medium, which can improve the accuracy when selecting the antenna with the best signal quality so as to improve the communication quality when communicating).
Claim(s) 9-10 and 19-20, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kerner in view of Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov and in further view of Imamura et al., US 9480019 B2, (hereinafter Imamura).
Regarding claim 9, 19, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 1 and 11.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Imamura teaches, wherein the wireless communication method is employed by a Wake-up Radio (WuR) receiver (Col. 8, lines 48-50, e.g., The antenna 501 receives a wake-up signal or a data signal and outputs the reception signal to the variable LNA 502).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified receiver of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Imamura to include a Wake-up Radio (WuR) receiver. Doing so would facilitate in achieving reducing the power consumption in a reception standby period as suggested by Imamura (see Col. 4, lines 1-9, e.g., The disclosure makes it possible to reduce the power consumption in a reception standby period).
Regarding claim 10, 20, Kerner as combined with Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov teaches the limitations of Claim 1 and 11.
Kerner as improved by Li, Liu, LEE and Jakubov does not teach but Imamura teaches, wherein the first received signal is a constant envelope (CE) modulated signal (Col. 14, lines 54-56, e.g., the envelope signal detected from the first signal is one of a constant envelope signal and a non-constant envelope signal).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective
filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the first signal of Kerner to incorporate the teachings of Imamura to include constant envelope (CE) modulated signal. Doing so would facilitate in achieving reducing the power consumption in a reception standby period as suggested by Imamura (see Col. 4, lines 1-9, e.g., The disclosure makes it possible to reduce the power consumption in a reception standby period).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 and 15 are in condition for allowance.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20170366296 A1 issue to STANCIU et al. teaches composite link quality indicators (LQI) measurements are based upon signal strength measurements for the received packet communications and also based upon signal quality measurements for the received packet communications.
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/POONAM SHARMA/Examiner, Art Unit 2472
/KEVIN T BATES/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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