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 .
Response to Amendment
The following is a final office action in response to applicant’s reply, filed on 05/13/2026, to the Non-Final Office Action mailed on 02/25/2026.
Claims 1, 8 and 15 are amended. Claims 7 and 14 are canceled. Claim 21 is added new. Claims 1-6, 8-13 and 15-21 are pending and addressed below.
Applicant’s amendment to the Spec and claim has overcome objection to the title and the claim, previously set forth in the non-final office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 21 recites expression “feedback segment retransmission bitmap parts” which lacks clarity. The expression is not an established technical term, and the claim does not define the term. Therefore, it is not understood the identification of the expression in the context of the invention, and the application/use of a bitmap-for-retransmission for the purpose of transmission of beamforming/CQI report segments.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claims 1-6, 8-13 and 15-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over IDS reference Huang; Po-Kai et al US 20190349067 A1, hereinafter Huang, in view of Wu; Tianyu et al US 20150372795 A1, hereinafter Wu.
Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Huang teaches, a communication method, comprising:
sending, by a first device, a first frame to a second device (Huang [15], "In MU mode, and additional beamforming refinement protocol (BRP) trigger frame may be sent by an AP to solicit compressed beamforming information and CQI frames from beamformee STAs"; Fig. 2, item 214; [69] "The AP 202 may send a BRP trigger frame 214 to solicit compressed beamforming and CQI frames from the multiple user devices.". AP is “a first device”. STA is “a second device”), wherein the first frame requests one or more of N segments of an extremely high throughput (EHT) compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report, and N is an integer greater than 8 (Huang [17] " A BRP trigger frame currently uses eight bits in a feedback segment retransmission bitmap within a trigger-dependent user subfield. The feedback segment retransmission bitmap may indicate which segment of multiple beamforming report segments an AP is requesting, so to allow for more than eight segments (e.g., when more than eight antennas are available), an additional bit may be needed."; [27] "In one or more embodiments, the segmentation of IEEE 802.11 beamforming reporting may be increased (e.g., the number of segments used to provide the beamforming reporting may be increased) to allow for more than eight segmented reports …"; [28] "The feedback segment retransmission bitmap subfield may indicate the requested feedback segments of a compressed beamforming report."; [39] "Referring to Table 1, a next generation report may refer to an extremely high throughput (EHT) frame designed for EHT devices. Therefore, a beamforming report may be a HE compressed beamforming report, an EHT compressed beamforming report,"); and
receiving, by the first device, the EHT compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report from the second device (Huang [69] "The user device 204 may send a compressed beamforming and CQI frame 216").
Huang does not expressly teach, however, in the same field of endeavor, Wu teaches, wherein the first frame comprises a plurality of user information fields, at least two of the plurality of user information fields correspond to the same second device and comprise a same association identifier (Wu Fig. 8, 830; [41] “When the four-bit field is not enough for feedback mode indication, multiple STA fields can be combined together for feedback mode indication. As depicted by the STA info field 830, two STA info fields are combined together for feedback mode indication. For example, both AIDs of the two STA info fields are for the same STA1. […] In addition, more STA info field can be combined and there can be a feedback segment 3 to indicate the feedback mode configuration.”, teaches combining two STA info fields (=user info fields) to provide feedback configuration information to an STA. “Feedback mode indication” indicates sub-channels information for which beamforming/CQI report for indicated sub-channels is requested, similar to requesting segments of beamforming/CQI report, under BRI (Broadest Reasonable Interpretation)), and
the at least two of the plurality of user information fields are used to request the EHT compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report (see Wu [24] “Similarly, for compressed beamforming report, the receiver only needs to feedback the SNR and beamforming matrix for good sub-channels. The receiver provides SNR and beamforming matrix feedback information for a subset of all the sub-channels based on a predefined condition. As a result, more feedback modes are introduced for OFDMA systems. Furthermore, a mechanism for feedback mode indication in the sounding protocol is provided. In the example of FIG. 1, the AP provides feedback mode indication via sounding announcement NDPA 101 or polling frames 103 and 104, and STA1/STA2/STA3 will feedback the compressed beamforming report to the AP via frames 111, 121, and 131 with the indicated feedback mode, respectively”, see also Fig. 9, 904; [41]. Sub-channels based compressed/CQI feedback in Wu is, under BRI, similar to segment-based report in the claim).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Huang to include the features as taught by Wu above in order to provide sub-channel SNR feedback and CSI reporting with reduced overhead, and to provide a mechanism for feedback mode indication in the sounding protocol for OFDMA systems
With respect to claim 8, claim recites the identical features of claim 1 for a corresponding method of inter-working receiving side. Therefore, it is subjected to the same rejection.
With respect to claim 15, claim recites the identical features of claim 1 for a corresponding apparatus. Therefore, it is subjected to the same rejection.
Regarding claims 2, 9 and 16, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 8 and 15.
Huang further teaches, wherein any one of the N segments is carried in a second frame, the second frame comprises a first field and any one of the N segments, and the first field indicates a segment that is not fed back in the N segments (Huang [0037] “In one or more embodiments, still referring to the first option of the modified sounding feedback from STAs, … One reserved bit may be used to extend the remaining feedback segments field. When the bit is set, the remaining feedback segments field may be 8 plus the value of the remaining feedback segments field.”, [40] “In one or more embodiments, … the new compressed beamforming and CQI action frame, for next generation MIMO control, the frame may include … a remaining feedback segments field, a first feedback segment, …. The remaining feedback segments field may include at least 4 bits.”, teaches compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report comprises “a remaining feedback segments field” i.e., indicating a segment that is not fed back in the N segments).
Regarding claims 3, 10 and 17, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 8 and 15.
Huang further teaches, wherein the first frame comprises a second field, and the second field requests one or more of the N segments of the EHT compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report (Huang [28] “A trigger-dependent user information field may include at least X bits of a feedback segment retransmission bitmap, wherein X>8. The feedback segment retransmission bitmap subfield may indicate the requested feedback segments of a compressed beamforming report.").
Regarding claims 4, 11 and 18, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 3, 10 and 17.
Huang further teaches, wherein a number of bits of the second field is W, at least one of the W bits of the second field indicates to request at least two of the N segments, and W is an integer greater than or equal to 1 (see Huang [28] having X bits).
Regarding claims 5, 12 and 19, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 3, 10 and 17.
Huang further teaches, wherein a number of bits of the second field is greater than or equal to N (implied in Huang [28]).
Regarding claims 6, 13 and 20, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claims 1, 8 and 15.
Huang further teaches, wherein the first frame comprises a second field, the second field indicates an index R of a first segment in consecutive (N-R) segments that need to be requested, and R is an integer greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to N-1 (see Huang “When the bit in position n (e.g., n=0 for least significant bits and n=X−1 for most significant bits) is one, the feedback segment with the remaining feedback segments equal to n is requested.”, remaining feedback segments (= segments that need to be requested)).
Regarding claim 21, Huang, in view of Wu, teaches the methods/apparatus, as outlined in the rejection of claim 1.
Huang further teaches, wherein the at least two of the plurality of user information fields respectively comprise feedback segment retransmission bitmap parts for requesting different segments of the EHT compressed beamforming/channel quality indication report (Huang [28] “The feedback segment retransmission bitmap subfield may indicate the requested feedback segments of a compressed beamforming report.”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
PARK; Eunsung US 20230397179 A1 - METHOD AND DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING FEEDBACK FRAME IN WIRELESS LAN SYSTEM
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
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/MAHBUBUL BAR CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475
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