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)(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.
Claim(s) 2-5,8-9, 11-16, 19-20, 22-26 & 29-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a2 as being anticipated by Chen et al. US 2021/0321293 A1.
Claims 2 and 24:
Chen discloses a wireless communication device, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one memory (See paras 88-89, memory and processor), the at least one processor operable to cause the wireless communication device to: receive a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (See para 21, “the trigger frame is encoded to allocate resources to one or more non-AP STAs and to solicit one or more uplink trigger-based (TB) PPDUs from the one or more non-AP STAs”), the trigger frame including a common information field (See para 27, common information field in the trigger frame) and one or more user information fields that follow the common information field (See para 45, user info field), the common information field or a user information field of the one or more user information fields including channel puncturing information associated with the PPDU (See paras 70-72, puncturing information in common field or user info field); and transmit the PPDU via a wireless communication channel in accordance with the channel puncturing information (See para 70, “If there are punctured channels within the span, the punctured channels are indicated in the common part of the NDPA frame and the corresponding feedbacks are knocked out from the feedback report”).
Claims 3, 14 and 25:
Chen discloses that the channel puncturing information is included in a channel puncturing subfield (See para 72, “the common punctured channels can be indicated in the common info field…”), and wherein the channel puncturing information indicates whether puncturing is to be performed on one or more subchannels of the wireless communication channel (See para 70, “If there are punctured channels within the span, the punctured channels are indicated in the common part of the NDPA frame and the corresponding feedbacks are knocked out from the feedback report”).
Claims 4 and 15:
Chen discloses that the one or more subchannels include one or more 20 megahertz (MHz) subchannels or one or more 40 MHz subchannels (See para 79, 20 MHz channel).
Claims 5, 16 and 26:
Chen discloses that the channel puncturing subfield includes a 16-bit bitmap, wherein each bit of the 16-bit bitmap is associated with a respective 20 megahertz (MHz) subchannel of the wireless communication channel (See para 79, “16 bits to cover all 20 MHz channel”).
Claims 8 and 19:
Chen discloses that the user information field includes the channel puncturing information associated with the PPDU (See paras 70-72, puncturing information in common field or user info field in the PPDU) in accordance with an association identifier (AID) value indicated by the user information field (See paras 19, 36 and 60, specific user info includes a specific AID. Also see abstract, “The Special User Info Field may be identified by a predetermined value as an STA association identifier (AID) value”. Also see fig. 2, AID in user info field).
Claims 9 and 20:
Chen discloses that the AID value is unassigned to any wireless communication devices associated with a same basic service set (BSS) as the wireless communication device, wherein the user information field is unassociated with any wireless communication devices associated with the same BSS as the wireless communication device in accordance with the AID value being unassigned, and wherein the user information field is a special user information field (See paras 19, 36 and 60, specific user info includes a specific AID. Also see abstract, “The Special User Info Field may be identified by a predetermined value as an STA association identifier (AID) value”. Also see fig. 2, AID in user info field).
Claims 11 and 22:
Chen discloses that the user information field or a second user information field of the one or more user information fields includes information to be included in a physical layer (PHY) preamble of the PPDU (See para 72, user info included in the PHY header in the preamble of the PPDU) based on an association identifier (AID) value indicated by the user information field or the second user information field (See paras 19, 36 and 60, specific user info includes a specific AID), wherein the AID value is unassigned to any wireless communication devices associated with a same basic service set (BSS) as the wireless communication device (See paras 19, 36 and 60, specific user info includes a specific AID. Also see abstract, “The Special User Info Field may be identified by a predetermined value as an STA association identifier (AID) value”. Also see fig. 2, AID in user info field).
Claims 12 and 23:
Chen discloses that the second user information field is an initial user information field in a series of the one or more user information fields (See para 50, second user info field).
Claims 13 and 29:
Chen discloses a first wireless communication device, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one memory, the at least one processor operable to cause the first wireless communication device to: transmit a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to be transmitted by a second wireless communication device (See para 21, “the trigger frame is encoded to allocate resources to one or more non-AP STAs and to solicit one or more uplink trigger-based (TB) PPDUs from the one or more non-AP STAs”), the trigger frame including a common information field and one or more user information fields that follow the common information field (See para 27, common information field in the trigger frame), the common information field or a user information field of the one or more user information fields (See para 45, user info field) including channel puncturing information associated with the PPDU (See paras 70-72, puncturing information in common field or user info field); and receive the PPDU via a wireless communication channel in accordance with the channel puncturing information (See para 70, “If there are punctured channels within the span, the punctured channels are indicated in the common part of the NDPA frame and the corresponding feedbacks are knocked out from the feedback report”).
Claim 30:
Chen discloses that the channel puncturing information is included in a channel puncturing subfield (See para 72, “the common punctured channels can be indicated in the common info field…”), wherein the channel puncturing information indicates whether puncturing is to be performed on one or more subchannels of the wireless communication channel (See para 70, “If there are punctured channels within the span, the punctured channels are indicated in the common part of the NDPA frame and the corresponding feedbacks are knocked out from the feedback report”), and wherein: the channel puncturing subfield includes a 16-bit bitmap, wherein each bit of the 16-bit bitmap is associated with a respective 20 megahertz (MHz) subchannel of the wireless communication channel (See para 79, “16 bits to cover all 20 MHz channel”).
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.
Claim(s) 10, 21, 28 and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al in view of Jeon et al. US 2022/0078792 A1.
Claims 10, 21, 28 and 31:
Chen doesn’t disclose that at least one of the common information field, the user information field, or a second user information field includes information that indicates a version of a physical layer wireless communication protocol associated with the one or more user information fields, wherein the version of the physical layer wireless communication protocol is associated with each of the one or more user information fields.
Jeon discloses that at least one of the common information field, the user information field (See para 63, AID and see fig, 7, PHY Version Id), or a second user information field includes information that indicates a version of a physical layer wireless communication protocol associated with the one or more user information fields, wherein the version of the physical layer wireless communication protocol is associated with each of the one or more user information fields (See para 63, AID and see fig, 7, PHY Version Id).
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 system of Chen with the teachings of Jeon to improve the method disclosed by Chen by including the aforementioned feature. The motivation to combine would have been to enable the user to decode according to the protocol of the frame in an environment where new and legacy device protocols are being used and allow more compatibility and flexibility.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 7, 17, 18 & 27 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
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HASHIM S. BHATTI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/HASHIM S BHATTI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475