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 .
Status of Claims
The status of the claims is as follows: claims 8 – 14 and 21 – 23 have been canceled and claims 1 – 7, 15 – 20 and 24 – 30 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 16, 28 – 30 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 16, line 2 and line 4 “Aps” should be replaced with --APs--.
In claim 28, line 2, “process” should be replaced with --method--
In claim 29, lines 3-4, “process” should be replaced with --method--
In claim 30, line 2, “process” should be replaced with --method--
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1 – 7, 15 – 20 and 24 – 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Gan et al. (US 2023/0102644 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Gan teaches a communication method in a wireless network (Fig. 3b), comprising, at an access point, AP, multi-link device, MLD (AP multi-link device 101), having multiple affiliated APs (AP 101-1, AP 101-2, AP 101-3): sending, by a reporting affiliated AP (paragraphs 104: reporting AP; further described in paragraph 111), a management frame (paragraph 111: the management frame sent by the reporting AP), wherein the management frame signals that one of the affiliated APs is a management AP providing profiles of all the affiliated APs (paragraphs 104-105: the AP that sends the MLD information may be referred to as the reporting AP, and another AP indicated in the MLD information in the multi-AP multi-link device is referred to as the reported AP… [0105] The MLD information indicates information about another AP in the multi-AP multi-link device. Further described in paragraph 172: Example 3: The AP 2x in the AP MLD 2 shown in FIG. 8a sends a management frame, for example, a beacon frame or a probe response frame. A sending manner may be broadcast or unicast. As shown in FIG. 9c, the management frame carries MLD information. The MLD information carries two MLD elements… Because the reporting AP 2x belongs to a multiple BSSID set, the MLD information of the management frame further needs to carry a multiple BSSID element. The element carries two non-transmitted BSSID profiles. Also described in paragraphs 104-109, 171-178).
Regarding claim 2, Gan teaches a communication method in a wireless network (Fig. 3b), comprising at a non-access point, non-AP, multi-link device, MLD (Fig. 3b: STA 104; end of paragraph 72: non-AP STA may be referred to as a multi-link STA, a multi-link STA device, or a STA multi-link device): receiving, from a reporting affiliated AP of an AP MLD having multiple affiliated APs, a management frame signaling that one of the affiliated APs is a management AP providing profiles of all the affiliated APs (Fig. 3b; paragraph 111: the management frame sent by the reporting AP; paragraphs 104-105: the AP that sends the MLD information may be referred to as the reporting AP, and another AP indicated in the MLD information in the multi-AP multi-link device is referred to as the reported AP… [0105] The MLD information indicates information about another AP in the multi-AP multi-link device. Further described in paragraph 172: Example 3: The AP 2x in the AP MLD 2 shown in FIG. 8a sends a management frame, for example, a beacon frame or a probe response frame. A sending manner may be broadcast or unicast. As shown in FIG. 9c, the management frame carries MLD information. The MLD information carries two MLD elements… Because the reporting AP 2x belongs to a multiple BSSID set, the MLD information of the management frame further needs to carry a multiple BSSID element. The element carries two non-transmitted BSSID profiles. Also described in paragraphs 104-109, 171-178), and obtaining, from the management AP, the profiles of the affiliated APs (paragraph 172: Because the reporting AP 2x belongs to a multiple BSSID set, the MLD information of the management frame further needs to carry a multiple BSSID element. The element carries two non-transmitted BSSID profiles).
Regarding claim 3, Gan teaches the method of claim 1, wherein providing profiles by the management AP includes advertising the profiles of all the affiliated APs in management frames (paragraph 172: Example 3: The AP 2x in the AP MLD 2 shown in FIG. 8a sends a management frame, for example, a beacon frame or a probe response frame. A sending manner may be broadcast).
Regarding claim 4, Gan teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the management frame is a beacon frame (paragraph 75: a management frame, for example, a beacon frame).
Regarding claim 5, Gan teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the reporting affiliated AP is the management AP, and the management frame further advertises the profiles of all the affiliated APs (paragraph 172: Example 3: The AP 2x in the AP MLD 2 shown in FIG. 8a sends a management frame, for example, a beacon frame or a probe response frame. A sending manner may be broadcast).
Regarding claim 6, Gan teaches the method of claim 5, wherein the profiles of the other affiliated APs other than the reporting affiliated AP are conveyed in a Basic variant Multi-Link element of the management frame (paragraph 73: 802.11be-based or 802.11be-compatible protocol).
Regarding claim 7, Gan teaches the method of claim 1, wherein only one of the affiliated APs of the AP MLD is a management AP (paragraph 104: the AP that sends the MLD information may be referred to as the reporting AP).
Regarding claim 15, Gan teaches the method of claim 2, wherein obtaining the profiles of the affiliated APs includes receiving the next beacon frame sent by the management AP (paragraph 256: a neighbor AP TBTT offset (target beacon transmission time offset of a neighbor AP) field indicating an offset between beacon sending time of a neighbor AP and beacon sending time of a reporting AP).
Regarding claim 16, Gan teaches the method of claim 2, wherein, obtaining the profiles of the affiliated APs includes sending a probe request frame to the management AP and in response receiving, from the latter, a probe response frame providing the profiles of the affiliated APs (paragraph 88: Only an AP whose BSSID is a transmitted BSSID can send a management frame, for example a beacon frame and a probe response frame. If a probe request frame sent by a STA is for an AP whose BSSID is a non-transmitted BSSID in a multiple BSSID set, the AP whose BSSID is the transmitted BSSID needs to help respond to the probe response frame).
Regarding claim 17, Gan teaches the method of claim 2, further comprising, at the non-AP MLD, determining from the management frame whether the reporting affiliated AP is the management AP (paragraphs 119-120: the station parses the management frame sent by the reporting AP to obtain MLD information about the reporting AP).
Regarding claim 18, Gan teaches the method of claim 17, wherein responsive to determining that the reporting affiliated AP is not the management AP, the non-AP MLD configures an affiliated non-AP station of the non-AP MLD to communicate with the management AP (paragraph 119-120: the station parses the management frame sent by the reporting AP to obtain MLD information about the reporting AP. The MLD information includes one or more MLD elements, and optionally includes a multiple BSSID element. Specifically, the MLD element includes information about a plurality of APs of a same MLD. If the reporting AP belongs to a multiple BSSID set, the MLD information further includes a multiple BSSID element. The multiple BSSID element includes information about another AP belonging to the same multiple BSSID set as the reporting AP, and further includes information about an AP in the same AP MLD as the another AP. Also described in paragraph 123).
Regarding claim 19, Gan teaches the method of claim 17, wherein responsive to determining that the reporting affiliated AP is not the management AP, switching from one reporting affiliated non-AP station to another affiliated non-AP station to exchange management frames with the management AP (paragraph 123: For example, in FIG. 5, after the station receives MLD information sent by an AP 11 whose MAC address is BSSID-11 on a link 1, the station may choose to associate with an AP 22 whose MAC address is BSSID-22 and an AP 32 whose MAC address is BSSID-32 in an AP multi-link device MLD 2. Also described in paragraph 119-120).
Regarding claim 20, Gan teaches the method of claim 19, wherein the management frames are exchanged to perform association between the non-AP MLD and the AP MLD (paragraph 123: For example, in FIG. 5, after the station receives MLD information sent by an AP 11 whose MAC address is BSSID-11 on a link 1, the station may choose to associate with an AP 22 whose MAC address is BSSID-22 and an AP 32 whose MAC address is BSSID-32 in an AP multi-link device MLD 2. Also described in paragraph 119-120).
Regarding claim 24, Gan teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the AP MLD performs multi-link operations, MLO, with non-AP MLDs, the method further comprising, at the AP MLD, exchanging management frames and/or control frames that include at least one parameter affecting a link of the multi-link operation, with a non-AP MLD over only a management link established with the management AP (paragraph 149; paragraph 123: For example, in FIG. 5, after the station receives MLD information sent by an AP 11 whose MAC address is BSSID-11 on a link 1, the station may choose to associate with an AP 22 whose MAC address is BSSID-22 and an AP 32 whose MAC address is BSSID-32 in an AP multi-link device MLD 2. Also described in paragraph 119-120).
Regarding claim 25, Gan teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the non-AP MLD performs multi-link operations, MLO, with the AP MLD, the method further comprising, at the non-AP MLD, exchanging management frames and/or control frames that include at least one parameter affecting a link of the multi-link operation, with the AP MLD over only a management link established with the affiliated AP (paragraph 149; paragraph 123: For example, in FIG. 5, after the station receives MLD information sent by an AP 11 whose MAC address is BSSID-11 on a link 1, the station may choose to associate with an AP 22 whose MAC address is BSSID-22 and an AP 32 whose MAC address is BSSID-32 in an AP multi-link device MLD 2. Also described in paragraph 119-120).
Regarding claim 26, Gan teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 27, Gan teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 28, Gan teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1. Gan further teaches the wireless communication device comprising at least one microprocessor configured for carrying out the process defined in claim 1 (Fig. 15; processor 1501/1505).
Regarding claim 29, Gan teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 1. Gan further teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program which, when executed by a microprocessor or computer system in a wireless device, causes the wireless device to perform the process defined in claim 1 (Fig. 15; processor 1501/1505; paragraph 301: computer-readable storage medium).
Regarding claim 30, Gan teaches the same limitations described above in the rejection of claim 2. Gan further teaches a wireless communication device comprising at least one microprocessor configured for carrying out the process defined in claim 2 (Fig. 15; processor 1501/1505).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RHONDA L MURPHY whose telephone number is (571)272-3185. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at (571) 272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RHONDA L MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462