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 § 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 6, 8-12, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liu et al US 20200120544 (hereinafter Liu).
Regarding claim 1, Liu discloses a coordinator network device (101, 201, 301,401, see figs. 1A, 2A, 3B, 4A, and 6, [0028]), comprising:
a processor (630, see fig. 6, [0049]);
at least one network interface controller configured to provide access to a network (640, see fig. 6, [0052]); and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor (620, see fig. 6, [0050]), wherein the memory comprises a coordination logic (see fig. 6, [0050]-[0052]) that is configured to:
receive multi-link operation (MLO)-related data (471, 481 see fig. 4B, [0043]) from each of one or more MLO- enabled network devices associated with a coordination group (coordinated AP1, coordinated AP2, transmit BQR/BSR 471, 481, to coordinator AP, see fig. 4B, [0043]), the coordination group comprising a plurality of network devices (see figs. 1A-1B, [0028]);
allocate a transmission opportunity (TXOP) to a first network device in the coordination group based at least in part on the MLO-related data (coordination frame 462, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]); and
transmit an indication of the allocation of the TXOP to the first network device (coordination frame 462, transmitted from coordinator AP 451 to coordinated AP1 and coordinated AP2, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]).
Regarding claim 2 as applied to claim 1, Liu further discloses wherein the coordination group comprises a multi- access point (AP) coordination (MAPC) group (see figs. 1A-1B, [0028]).
Regarding claim 6 as applied to claim 1, Liu further discloses wherein the MLO-related data from at least one of the one or more MLO-enabled network devices comprises an indication of one or more supported MLO modalities for one or more client devices associated with each of the at least one of the one or more MLO-enabled network devices (coordinated AP1, coordinated AP2, transmit BQR/BSR 471, 481, to coordinator AP, see fig. 4B, [0036], [0043]).
Regarding claim 8 as applied to claim 1, Liu further discloses wherein the MLO-related data is received from at least one of the one or more MLO-enabled network devices based on the at least one of the one or more MLO-enabled network devices joining the coordination group (see fig. 1A, [0028], [0036]).
Regarding claim 9 as applied to claim 1, Liu further discloses wherein the TXOP is allocated to the first network device based at least further in part on a downlink buffer status associated with each network device of the plurality of network devices in the coordination group (see [0036], [0043]).
Regarding claim 10 as applied to claim 9, Liu further discloses wherein the downlink buffer status includes a downlink queue depth associated with each traffic identifier (TID) and each basic service set (BSS) at the network device (see [0036]).
Regarding claim 11 as applied to claim 10, Liu further discloses wherein the downlink queue depth corresponds to a number of medium access control (MAC) service data units (MSDUs) (fig. 3A, see [0036]).
Regarding claim 12 as applied to claim 10, Liu further discloses wherein the coordination logic is further configured to balance or rebalance a priority of at least some of the plurality of network devices (coordination frame 462, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]).
Regarding claim 19, Liu discloses a network device (coordinated AP1 or coordinated AP2, see fig. 4B, [0043], [0049]), comprising:
a processor (630, see fig. 6, [0050]);
at least one network interface controller configured to provide access to a network (640, see fig. 6, [0052]); and
a memory communicatively coupled to the processor (620, see fig. 6, [0050], wherein the memory comprises a coordination logic (see fig. 6, [0050]-[0052]) that is configured to:
transmit multi-link operation (MLO)-related data associated with the network device (471, 481 see fig. 4B, [0043]) to a coordinator network device (101, 201, 301,401, see figs. 1A, 2A, 3B, 4A, and 6, [0028]) associated with a coordination group, the coordination group comprising a plurality of network devices (coordinated AP1, coordinated AP2, transmit BQR/BSR 471, 481, to coordinator AP, see fig. 4B, [0043]), the plurality of network devices including the network device (see figs. 1A-1B, [0028]);
receive an indication of an allocation of a transmission opportunity (TXOP) from the coordinator network device based at least in part on the MLO-related data (coordination frame 462, transmitted from coordinator AP 451 to coordinated AP1 and coordinated AP2, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]); and
send a downlink transmission based on the allocation of the TXOP (472, 482, see fig. 4B, [0044]).
Regarding claim 20, Liu discloses a method for coordinating network device (101, 201, 301,401, see figs. 1A, 2A, 3B, 4A, and 6, [0028]) transmissions, comprising:
receiving multi-link operation (MLO)-related data (471, 481 see fig. 4B, [0043]) from each of one or more MLO-enabled network devices associated with a coordination group (coordinated AP1, coordinated AP2, transmit BQR/BSR 471, 481, to coordinator AP, see fig. 4B, [0043]), the coordination group comprising a plurality of network devices (see figs. 1A-1B, [0028]);
allocating a transmission opportunity (TXOP) to a first network device in the coordination group based at least in part on the MLO-related data (coordination frame 462, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]); and
transmitting an indication of the allocation of the TXOP to the first network device (coordination frame 462, transmitted from coordinator AP 451 to coordinated AP1 and coordinated AP2, see fig. 4B, [0041], [0043]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, and 13-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chitrakar et al US 20240098712 discloses an access point generating a request frame to setup one or more coordinated service periods.
Hong et al US 20230389101 discloses When the AP MLD and the STA MLD can perform an STR operation in a link used when performing the multi-link operation, APs or terminals belonging to the AP MLD or the STA MLD independently perform a channel contention procedure for frame transmission in the respective links.
Chu et al US 11,792,829 discloses a multi-link access point device (AP MLD) that has at least one of a simultaneous transmission capability and a simultaneous transmission and reception (STR) capability; maintaining, at the NSTR STA MLD, a link state on multiple links with the AP MLD that has at least one of the simultaneous transmission capability and the STR capability.
Jang et al US 20230120236 discloses multi-link aggregation.
Xin et al US 20230117842 discloses a buffer status reporting mechanism associated with a buffer status report poll from an access point.
Patil US 20200359259 discloses an MAC service data unit (MSDU) or aggregated MSDU (AMSDU) may be received by an MLO entity, which may attach a common sequence number (SN) to the packets of the MSDUs or AMSDUs. The packets may be stored in a common queue (such as buffer) (such as common across multiple wireless links). An MPDU including the packets may be generated at the MAC layer and transmitted via different wireless links for packet aggregation.
D. Nunez, M. Smith and B. Bellalta, discloses "Multi-AP Coordinated Spatial Reuse for Wi-Fi 8: Group Creation and Scheduling," 2023 21st Mediterranean Communication and Computer Networking Conference (MedComNet), Island of Ponza, Italy, 2023, pp. 203-208, doi: 10.1109/MedComNet58619.2023.10168857.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OLUMIDE T AJIBADE AKONAI whose telephone number is (571)272-6496. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM.
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/OLUMIDE AJIBADE AKONAI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645