DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
2. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy JAPAN 2021-107209 has been filed on 06/29/2021. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. However, examiner notes that the certified copies lack a certified English translation.
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/21/2023 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
4a. Content of Specification
(a) TITLE OF THE INVENTION: See 37 CFR 1.72(a) and MPEP § 606. The title of the invention should be placed at the top of the first page of the specification unless the title is provided in an application data sheet. The title of the invention should be brief but technically accurate and descriptive, preferably from two to seven words. It may not contain more than 500 characters.
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Objections
4b. Claims 1, 6 and 7 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 “and allocates the coded blocks to the radio sub-channels different from each other” should read “and allocates the coded blocks to the radio sub-channels, wherein the sub-channels are different from each other”
Claim 1 “is equal to a bandwidth of preamble puncturing” should read “is equal to a bandwidth of a preamble puncturing”
Claim 6 “the frame generator adds a header holding the same identifier” should read “the frame generator adds a header holding a same identifier”
Claim 7 “the frame generator adds a header holding the same identifier” should read “the frame generator adds a header holding a same identifier”
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
5. Claim 4-5 and 7 are 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 4 recites “the same data block and have different parity bit sequences” is indefinite because it is unclear whether “have different parity sequences” is referring to “the coded blocks” or the “data block” in claim 4. For the purpose of examination, “have different parity sequences” will be interpreted “the coded blocks” as according to the specification ([0096] For example, the RV may indicate a number of a parity block; [0130] In the following description, a codeword block starting from RV1 will be referred to as RV1, a codeword block starting from RV2 will be referred to as RV2).
Claims 5 and 7 have similar indefiniteness to claim 4. Therefore, for the purpose of examination, the claim will be interpreted similarly to claim 4.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
6. Claims 1-3 and 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by CHEN et al (US-20210127291-A1, hereinafter, CHEN, filed in IDS).
Regarding claim 1, CHEN disclose:
A communication apparatus (wireless communication device) configured to communicate on a radio channel (wireless channel), the communication apparatus ([0007] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed by a wireless communication device, and may include receiving, via a wireless channel) comprising:
a coder configured to encode (PSDU) a data block (MPDU) to generate a coded block (Fig. 4; [0070] Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU; [0072] The payload 204 may include a PSDU including a data field (DATA) 214 that, in turn, may carry higher layer data, for example, in the form of medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU); Fig 8; [0091] the modem 802 may further include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, automatic gain control (AGC), a coder, a decoder, a multiplexer and a demultiplexer… while in a transmission mode, data obtained from the processor 806 is provided to a coder, which encodes the data to provide encoded bits. The encoded bits are then mapped to points in a modulation constellation (using a selected MCS) to provide modulated symbols);
a frame generator configured to generate a frame including the coded block ([0079] FIG. 4 shows an example PPDU 400 usable for communications between an AP 102 and a number of STAs 104… Each PSDU 404 may carry one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs)… The MPDU 414 may carry one or more MAC service data unit (MSDU) subframes 416. For example, the MPDU 414 may carry an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU) 418 including multiple MSDU subframes 416. Each MSDU subframe 416 contains a corresponding MSDU 420 preceded by a subframe header 422; Fig 8; [0094] the processor 806 may implement a control plane and MAC layer configured to perform various operations related to the generation and transmission of MPDUs, frames or packets. The MAC layer is configured to perform or facilitate the coding and decoding of frames, spatial multiplexing, space-time block coding (STBC), beamforming, and OFDMA resource allocation, among other operations or techniques. In some implementations, the processor 806 may generally control the modem 802 to cause the modem to perform various operations described above); and
a transmitter configured to transmit the frame (Fig. 8 – radio 804; [0093] The radio 804 generally includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter (or “transmitter chain”) and at least one RF receiver (or “receiver chain”), which may be combined into one or more transceivers; [0068] The APs 102 and STAs 104 transmit and receive wireless communications (hereinafter also referred to as “Wi-Fi communications”) to and from one another in the form of physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data units (PPDUs)),
wherein the radio channel includes multiple radio sub-channels (Fig. 7; [0087] FIG. 7… present on a first subchannel 715, a second subchannel 725, a third subchannel 735, and a fourth subchannel 745 of the wireless channel),
the coder generates one coded block (Fig. 4 – PPDU 400) or two or more coded blocks ([0099] FIG. 10 shows an example PPDU 1000 usable for wireless communication between an AP and a number of STAs according to some implementations…The PPDU 1000 includes a PHY preamble including a legacy portion 1002 and a non-legacy portion 1004… the PPDU 1000 also may be additionally logically partitioned into a pre-EHT portion 1050 (including PPDU fields 1008-1018) and an EHT portion 1060 (including PPDU fields 1022-1026)) from the data block (Fig. 4 – MPDU 406), and
the frame generator adds a header (Fig. 4 – MPDU 406 – MAC Header 412) holding the same identifier to the coded blocks ([0079] each PPDU 400 includes a PHY preamble 402 and a PSDU 404. Each PSDU 404 may carry one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs). For example, each PSDU 404 may carry an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) 408 that includes an aggregation of multiple A-MPDU subframes 406; [0080] Referring back to the A-MPDU subframe 406, the MAC header 412 may include a number of fields containing information that defines or indicates characteristics or attributes of data encapsulated within the frame body 414… the MAC header 412 may include a combination of a source address, a transmitter address, a receiver address or a destination address. The MAC header 412 may include a frame control field containing control information. The frame control field specifies the frame type, for example, a data frame, a control frame, or a management frame. The MAC header 412 may further including a duration field indicating a duration extending from the end of the PPDU until the end of an acknowledgment (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (for example, a block ACK (BA) in the case of an A-MPDU). The use of the duration field serves to reserve the wireless medium for the indicated duration, thus establishing the NAV), and
allocates the coded blocks to the radio sub-channels different (Fig. 7 – CH1 – CH4, Preamble, DATA) from each other ([0100] In some implementations, EHT-SIG 1018 may carry different information on different content channels. For example, each content channel may include a group or subset of subchannels (or frequency segments) of a wireless channel on which the PPDU 1000 is transmitted; [0088] In FIG. 7… the wireless channel may be punctured to exclude the second subchannel 725 from the transmission. Thus, transmission 700 is sent only on the first sub channel 715, the third subchannel 735 and the fourth subchannel 745. The preamble 705 may include signaling 710, 730, and 740 on the non-punctured subchannels 715, 735, and 745, respectively. However, signaling may be omitted from the second subchannel 725).
Regarding claim 2, CHEN further discloses:
The communication apparatus according to claim 1 (Fig. 4), wherein the radio sub-channels have an equal bandwidth (Fig. 7; [0069] Each of the frequency bands may include multiple channels (which may be used as subchannels of a larger bandwidth channel as described below). For example, PPDUs conforming to the IEEE 802.11n, 802.11ac and 802.11ax standard amendments may be transmitted over the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, each of which is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels).
Regarding claim 3, CHEN further discloses:
The communication apparatus according to claim 1 (Fig. 4), wherein the bandwidth of the radio sub-channels is equal to a bandwidth of preamble puncturing (Fig. 7 – Channel Puncture; [0069] PPDUs… each of which is divided into multiple 20 MHz channels).
Regarding claim 6, CHEN discloses:
A communication apparatus (wireless communication device) configured to communicate on a radio channel (wireless channel), the communication apparatus ([0007] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed by a wireless communication device, and may include receiving, via a wireless channel)comprising:
a coder configured to encode (PSDU) a data block (MPDU) to generate a coded block (Fig. 4; [0070] Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU; [0072] The payload 204 may include a PSDU including a data field (DATA) 214 that, in turn, may carry higher layer data, for example, in the form of medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU); Fig 8; [0091] the modem 802 may further include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, automatic gain control (AGC), a coder, a decoder, a multiplexer and a demultiplexer… while in a transmission mode, data obtained from the processor 806 is provided to a coder, which encodes the data to provide encoded bits. The encoded bits are then mapped to points in a modulation constellation (using a selected MCS) to provide modulated symbols);
a frame generator configured to generate a frame including the coded block ([0079] FIG. 4 shows an example PPDU 400 usable for communications between an AP 102 and a number of STAs 104… Each PSDU 404 may carry one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs)… The MPDU 414 may carry one or more MAC service data unit (MSDU) subframes 416. For example, the MPDU 414 may carry an aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU) 418 including multiple MSDU subframes 416. Each MSDU subframe 416 contains a corresponding MSDU 420 preceded by a subframe header 422; Fig 8; [0094] the processor 806 may implement a control plane and MAC layer configured to perform various operations related to the generation and transmission of MPDUs, frames or packets. The MAC layer is configured to perform or facilitate the coding and decoding of frames, spatial multiplexing, space-time block coding (STBC), beamforming, and OFDMA resource allocation, among other operations or techniques. In some implementations, the processor 806 may generally control the modem 802 to cause the modem to perform various operations described above); and
a transmitter configured to transmit the frame (Fig. 8 – radio 804; [0093] The radio 804 generally includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter (or “transmitter chain”) and at least one RF receiver (or “receiver chain”), which may be combined into one or more transceivers; [0068] The APs 102 and STAs 104 transmit and receive wireless communications (hereinafter also referred to as “Wi-Fi communications”) to and from one another in the form of physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data units (PPDUs)),
wherein the radio channel includes multiple radio sub-channels (Fig. 7; [0087] FIG. 7… present on a first subchannel 715, a second subchannel 725, a third subchannel 735, and a fourth subchannel 745 of the wireless channel),
the coder generates one coded block (Fig. 4 – PPDU 400) or two or more coded blocks ([0099] FIG. 10 shows an example PPDU 1000 usable for wireless communication between an AP and a number of STAs according to some implementations…The PPDU 1000 includes a PHY preamble including a legacy portion 1002 and a non-legacy portion 1004… the PPDU 1000 also may be additionally logically partitioned into a pre-EHT portion 1050 (including PPDU fields 1008-1018) and an EHT portion 1060 (including PPDU fields 1022-1026)) from the data block (Fig. 4 – MPDU 406), and
the frame generator adds a header (Fig. 4 – MPDU 406 – MAC Header 412) holding the same identifier to the coded blocks ([0079] each PPDU 400 includes a PHY preamble 402 and a PSDU 404. Each PSDU 404 may carry one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs). For example, each PSDU 404 may carry an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU) 408 that includes an aggregation of multiple A-MPDU subframes 406; [0080] Referring back to the A-MPDU subframe 406, the MAC header 412 may include a number of fields containing information that defines or indicates characteristics or attributes of data encapsulated within the frame body 414… the MAC header 412 may include a combination of a source address, a transmitter address, a receiver address or a destination address. The MAC header 412 may include a frame control field containing control information. The frame control field specifies the frame type, for example, a data frame, a control frame, or a management frame. The MAC header 412 may further including a duration field indicating a duration extending from the end of the PPDU until the end of an acknowledgment (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (for example, a block ACK (BA) in the case of an A-MPDU). The use of the duration field serves to reserve the wireless medium for the indicated duration, thus establishing the NAV), and
allocates the coded blocks (Fig. 7 – CH1 – CH4, Preamble, DATA) to the same radio sub-channel (Fig, 7 – 700; [0087] FIG. 7 shows a conceptual time-based illustration of the transmissions that may be present on a first subchannel 715, a second subchannel 725, a third subchannel 735, and a fourth subchannel 745 of the wireless channel; (all the subchannels are all part of the same wireless channel)).
Regarding claim 7, CHEN discloses:
A communication apparatus configured to communicate on a radio channel (wireless channel), the communication apparatus ([0007] Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure can be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed by a wireless communication device, and may include receiving, via a wireless channel) comprising:
a receiver (Fig. 8; [0007] a wireless communication device, and may include receiving, via a wireless channel; [0093] The radio 804 generally includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter (or “transmitter chain”) and at least one RF receiver (or “receiver chain”), which may be combined into one or more transceivers) configured to receive a frame (Fig. 4; [0070] Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU); and
a decoder configured to decode a coded block included in the frame (Fig. 4; [0070] Each PPDU is a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLCP service data unit (PSDU). The information provided in the preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU; [0072] The payload 204 may include a PSDU including a data field (DATA) 214 that, in turn, may carry higher layer data, for example, in the form of medium access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) or an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU); Fig 8; [0091] the modem 802 may further include digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry, automatic gain control (AGC), a coder, a decoder, a multiplexer and a demultiplexer; [0094] the processor 806 may implement a control plane and MAC layer configured… to perform or facilitate the coding and decoding of frames, spatial multiplexing… the processor 806 may generally control the modem 802 to cause the modem to perform various operations described above),
wherein the radio channel includes multiple radio sub-channels (Fig. 7; [0087] FIG. 7… present on a first subchannel 715, a second subchannel 725, a third subchannel 735, and a fourth subchannel 745 of the wireless channel), and
the decoder combines coded blocks having the same identifier included in a header of the frame received on each of the radio sub-channels ([0080] Referring back to the A-MPDU subframe 406, the MAC header 412 may include a number of fields containing information that defines or indicates characteristics or attributes of data encapsulated within the frame body 414. The MAC header 412 also includes a number of fields indicating addresses for the data encapsulated within the frame body 414. For example, the MAC header 412 may include a combination of a source address, a transmitter address, a receiver address or a destination address. The MAC header 412 may include a frame control field containing control information. The frame control field specifies the frame type, for example, a data frame, a control frame, or a management frame. The MAC header 412 may further including a duration field indicating a duration extending from the end of the PPDU until the end of an acknowledgment (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (for example, a block ACK (BA) in the case of an A-MPDU); [0088] In FIG. 7, there is an incumbent system transmission that occupies part of the second subchannel 725. Therefore, the wireless channel may be punctured to exclude the second subchannel 725 from the transmission. Thus, transmission 700 is sent only on the first sub channel 715, the third subchannel 735 and the fourth subchannel 745. The preamble 705 may include signaling 710, 730, and 740 on the non-punctured subchannels 715, 735, and 745, respectively. However, signaling may be omitted from the second subchannel 725; [0098] some implementations more specifically relate to preamble designs that accommodate parallelization of signaling among different content channels, subchannels, or subbands (groups of subchannels) within a wireless channel).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
7. Claims 4 and 5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHEN in view of NOH et al. (US-20210050952-A1, hereinafter NOH).
Regarding claim 4, CHEN further discloses:
The communication apparatus according to claim 1 (Fig. 4), wherein the coded blocks allocated to each of the radio sub-channels are generated from the same data block (Fig. 7; [0100] For example, each content channel may include a group or subset of subchannels (or frequency segments) of a wireless channel on which the PPDU 1000 is transmitted) and have a parity bit sequences ([0080] The MAC header 412 may further including a duration field indicating a duration extending from the end of the PPDU until the end of an acknowledgment (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (for example, a block ACK (BA) in the case of an A-MPDU)… Each A-MPDU subframe 406 may also include a frame check sequence (FCS) field 424 for error detection. For example, the FCS field 416 may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC); [0073] FIG. 2 also shows an example L-SIG 210 in the PDU 200. L-SIG 210 includes a data rate field 222, a reserved bit 224, a length field 226, a parity bit 228, and a tail field 230… The parity bit 228 may be used to detect bit errors. The tail field 230 includes tail bits that may be used by the receiving device to terminate operation of a decoder (for example, a Viterbi decoder). The receiving device may utilize the data rate and the length indicated in the data rate field 222 and the length field 226 to determine a duration of the packet in units of, for example, microseconds (μs) or other time units).
CHEN does not explicitly disclose different parity bit sequences.
However, NOH discloses different parity bit sequences ([0134] to support a HARQ process more efficiently, repetition could be appended to codeword and parity bit and the repetition comprises part of a codeword and/or parity bits. In some embodiments, a HARQ unit could include new data and/or retransmitted data. For example, a PSDU (e.g., MPDU) could include retransmitted data and new data together. In an example shown in FIG. 22, a PSDU (e.g., MPDU) include only repeated retransmitted data (e.g., CW-A, CW-B, and CW-C are provided twice in the HARQ retransmission). In one embodiment, the retransmitted PPDU in retransmission has the same length as the initial PPDU transmission when only retransmitted data is used. Given this technique, the probability of a successful retransmission is increased and the need for a next round of retransmission is decreased; [0095] In a second type of HARQ scheme, also referred to as an incremental redundancy (IR) HARQ (IR-HARQ) scheme, different puncturing patterns are used for each subpacket such that the signal changes for each retransmitted subpacket in comparison to the originally transmitted subpacket. IR-HARQ alternatively uses two puncturing patterns for odd numbered and even numbered transmissions, respectively. The redundancy scheme of IR-HARQ improves the log likelihood ratio (LLR) of parity bit(s) in order to combine information sent across different transmissions due to requests and lowers the code rate as the additional subpacket is used. This results in a lower error rate of the subpacket in comparison to CC-HARQ; [0101] Low density parity check (LDPC) codes are a special case of linear block codes (e.g., forward error-correction codes)… forward error correction codes are to augment strings of 0 or 1 bits of a message with deliberately introduced redundancy in the form of extra check bits to produce a codeword for the message. The codeword includes message bits and extra check bits (e.g., parity check bits). These check bits are added in such a way that codewords are distinct from each other and the transmitted message can be correctly decoded at the receiver, when some bits in the codeword are contaminated/lost (e.g., unable to be correctly/successfully decoded) during transmission over a channel).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was filed to modify the parity bit sequences of CHEN to include the different parity bit sequences as taught by NOH in order to support HARQ process more efficiently and improve successful retransmission of data (NOH – [0134] the probability of a successful retransmission is increased and the need for a next round of retransmission is decreased; [101] These check bits are added in such a way that codewords are distinct from each other and the transmitted message can be correctly decoded at the receiver, when some bits in the codeword are contaminated/lost (e.g., unable to be correctly/successfully decoded) during transmission over a channel; CHEN - [0073] The parity bit 228 may be used to detect bit errors. T).
Regarding claim 5, CHEN further discloses:
The communication apparatus according to claim 1 (Fig. 4), wherein the coded blocks allocated to each of the radio sub-channels are generated from the same data block (Fig. 7; [0100] For example, each content channel may include a group or subset of subchannels (or frequency segments) of a wireless channel on which the PPDU 1000 is transmitted) and have a parity bit sequence ([0080] The MAC header 412 may further including a duration field indicating a duration extending from the end of the PPDU until the end of an acknowledgment (ACK) of the last PPDU to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (for example, a block ACK (BA) in the case of an A-MPDU)… Each A-MPDU subframe 406 may also include a frame check sequence (FCS) field 424 for error detection. For example, the FCS field 416 may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC); [0073] FIG. 2 also shows an example L-SIG 210 in the PDU 200. L-SIG 210 includes a data rate field 222, a reserved bit 224, a length field 226, a parity bit 228, and a tail field 230… The parity bit 228 may be used to detect bit errors. The tail field 230 includes tail bits that may be used by the receiving device to terminate operation of a decoder (for example, a Viterbi decoder). The receiving device may utilize the data rate and the length indicated in the data rate field 222 and the length field 226 to determine a duration of the packet in units of, for example, microseconds (μs) or other time units).
CHEN does not explicitly disclose same parity bit sequences.
However, NOH discloses the same parity bit sequences ([0093] There are two methods of HARQ processing. In a first type of HARQ scheme, also referred to as chase combining (CC) HARQ (CC-HARQ) scheme, signals to be retransmitted are the same as the signals that previously failed because all subpackets to be retransmitted use the same puncturing pattern. The puncturing is needed to remove some of the parity bits after encoding using an error-correction code. The reason why the same puncturing pattern is used with CC-HARQ is to generate a coded data sequence with forward error correction (FEC) and to make the receiver use a maximum-ratio combining (MRC) to combine the received, retransmitted bits with the same bits from the previous transmission. For example, information sequences are transmitted in packets with a fixed length. At a receiver, error correction and detection are carried out over the whole packet).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was filed to modify the parity bit sequence of CHEN to include the same parity bit sequence as taught by NOH in order to optimize the chance of successful decoding of the failed packets by using the same puncturing pattern and bits for retransmission (CHEN [0093];).
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. PTO-892 form.
Bai et al. (US-20130223485-A1) teaches the difference between Chase combining and Incremental Redundancy (IR) combining.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THERESA NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2386. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9AM - 5PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MOO JEONG can be reached at (571)272-9617. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THERESA NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2418
/Moo Jeong/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418