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 .
The present application claims priority to provisional patent application 63/486,677, filed February 24, 2023 as well as provisional patent application 63/502,114 filed May 14, 2023, and provisional patent application 63/512,919 filed July 11, 2023.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 10, and 18, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US Pat. Pub. US 20250184306 to Julien Sevin et al. (hereinafter Sevin).
Regarding claim 1, Sevin teaches A method comprising:
associating, by an access point, with a station using a first MAC address;(Sevin teaches in Fig. 1 and para. [0064] stations associating with AP 110 )
receiving, by the access point, an indication from the station that the station supports media access control address change during association; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 1b and paras. [0079]-[0082] that a non-AP STA may include a declaration of support of a PRCM procedure. The PRCM capability field may be used to advertise the capability. PRCM is defined in para. [0058] as a “Pseudo RCM Procedure” for changing a MAC address of a non-AP STA. Sevin para. [0088] teaches that during association, a non-AP STA may change its MAC address during a previous associate with the AP based on an RCM procedure.)
initiating, by the access point, the media access control address change; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0187] that an AP initiates a PRCM MAC address for the next association at step 510.)
receiving, by the access point, a first upstream packet from the station using a second media access control address; (Sevin Fig. 1a, and para. [0085] teach that data transfer can begin after an association at step 180. When a new MAC address is performed during association step, Sevin Para. [0112] teaches that a PRCM address @MAC(m) MAC address is used in the association prior to data transfer “The other steps for association are described with reference to Fig. 1a” which includes data transfer step 180.
and
sending, by the access point, a first downstream traffic to the second media access control address. (Sevin para. [0112] teaches that after a PRCM MAC address is associated, data transfer shown as step 180 in Fig. 1a takes place:
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Regarding claim 10, Sevin teaches “A system comprising:
a memory storage; (Fig. 8 memory 803)
and a processing unit, the processing unit disposed in a station and coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to: (Fig. 8, central processing unit 801)
associate with a station using a first MAC address; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 1 and para. [0064] stations associating with AP 110 )
receive an indication from the station that the station supports media access control address change during association; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 1b and paras. [0079]-[0082] that a non-AP STA may include a declaration of support of a PRCM procedure. The PRCM capability field may be used to advertise the capability. PRCM is defined in para. [0058] as a “Pseudo RCM Procedure” for changing a MAC address of a non-AP STA. Sevin para. [0088] teaches that during association, a non-AP STA may change its MAC address during a previous associate with the AP based on an RCM procedure.)
initiate the media access control address change; ; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0187] that an AP initiates a PRCM MAC address for the next association at step 510.)
receive a first upstream packet from the station using a second media access control address; ; (Sevin Fig. 1a, and para. [0085] teach that data transfer can begin after an association at step 180. When a new MAC address is performed during association step, Sevin Para. [0112] teaches that a PRCM address @MAC(m) MAC address is used in the association prior to data transfer “The other steps for association are described with reference to Fig. 1a” which includes data transfer step 180.-)
and
send a first downstream traffic to the second media access control address. (Sevin para. [0112] teaches that after a PRCM MAC address is associated, data transfer shown as step 180 in Fig. 1a takes place:
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Regarding claim 18, Sevin teaches A computer-readable medium that stores a set of instructions which when executed perform a method (Sevin para. [0206]) executed by the set of instructions comprising:
associating, by an access point, with a station using a first MAC address; ;(Sevin teaches in Fig. 1 and para. [0064] stations associating with AP 110 )
receiving, by the access point, an indication from the station that the station supports media access control address change during association; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 1b and paras. [0079]-[0082] that a non-AP STA may include a declaration of support of a PRCM procedure. The PRCM capability field may be used to advertise the capability. PRCM is defined in para. [0058] as a “Pseudo RCM Procedure” for changing a MAC address of a non-AP STA. Sevin para. [0088] teaches that during association, a non-AP STA may change its MAC address during a previous associate with the AP based on an RCM procedure.)
initiating, by the access point, the media access control address change; (Sevin teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0187] that an AP initiates a PRCM MAC address for the next association at step 510.)
receiving, by the access point, a first upstream packet from the station using a second media access control address; (Sevin Fig. 1a, and para. [0085] teach that data transfer can begin after an association at step 180. When a new MAC address is performed during association step, Sevin Para. [0112] teaches that a PRCM address @MAC(m) MAC address is used in the association prior to data transfer “The other steps for association are described with reference to Fig. 1a” which includes data transfer step 180.)
and
sending, by the access point, a first downstream traffic to the second media access control address. (Sevin para. [0112] teaches that after a PRCM MAC address is associated, data transfer shown as step 180 in Fig. 1a takes place:
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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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 2-7, 9, 11-16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Sevin in view of US Pat. Pub. 20250071542 to Julien Sevin, Stephane Baron and Patrice Nezou (hereinafter Sevin II).
Regarding claim 2, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises:
providing a frame sequence number to the station; and
providing a seed for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler to the station, wherein the station uses the frame sequence number and the seed for the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler for all packets with the second media access control address.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches providing a frame sequence number to the station; (Sevin II para. [0027] teaches that an optional privacy parameter includes a sequence number for the station to uniquely identify a new MAC service data unit etc.)
and
providing a seed for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler to the station, wherein the station uses the frame sequence number and the seed for the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler for all packets with the second media access control address. . (Sevin II teaches in para. [0139] “For instance, for the RCM procedure specified in the standard IEEE Std 802.11-2020, every time the MAC address of the non-AP STA is changed to a new random value, counters in all Sequence Number (SN) spaces used to identify each transmitted frame (MSDU or MMPDU) are reset randomly as well as the seeds of the scramblers used at PHY level for shuffling the frame data payload before transmission or de-shuffling upon reception.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 3, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, wherein the station generates the second media access control address using a pairwise master key.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the station generates the second media access control address using a pairwise master key”. (Sevin II teaches in paras. [0186]-[0187] that a parameter K is a secret key specific to the STA and that for the client RCM procedure, according to IETF RFC 2898, the STA may generate the Pairwise Master Key (PMK) from Pre-Shared Key (PSK).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 4, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, wherein the access point generates the second media access control address further using pairwise master key.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the access point generates the second media access control address further using pairwise master key”. (Sevin II teaches in paras. [0226] – [0234] that the PMK is used to generate the ERCM key which may be transmitted to the AP, and the new MAC address is “then calculated in parallel by both the non-AP station and the AP.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 5, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, further comprising: sending an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “sending an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.” (Sevin II teaches in Fig. 9b, and para. [0299] for example, a beacon frame indicating the “change date” for the new MAC:
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Regarding claim 6, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 5, wherein the point of transition is indicated in a number of frames or a time from a current frame. “
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the point of transition is indicated in a number of frames or a time from a current frame”. (Sevin II teaches in Fig. 4 step 420 and Fig. 9b, above, and para. [0232] that the request “ERCM Change Date may include “an indication relative to a time (also known as “target time”) after which the new MAC address must be used.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 7, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: initiating the media access control address change for a plurality of stations associated with the access point at a same time. “
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: initiating the media access control address change for a plurality of stations associated with the access point at a same time. “ (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] a “synchronous change of the MAC address” wherein for AP initiation ERCM is intended for “all non-AP station ERCM-capable.” Sevin II also teaches in para. [0436] that an AP can initiate a change in MAC addresses via a broadcast request via a beacon frame.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 9, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the access point, the second media access control address; and generating, by the station, the second media access control address. “
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “generating, by the access point, the second media access control address; and generating, by the station, the second media access control address.” (Sevin II teaches simultaneous MAC address generation via a shared key in para. [0235] a “synchronous change of the MAC address” wherein “ both AP and non-AP STA apply the MAC address change for the changing STA”.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 11, Sevin does NOT teach “The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises the processing unit being operative to: provide a frame sequence number to the station; and provide a seed for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler to the station, wherein the station uses the frame sequence number and the seed for the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler for all packets that also use the second media access control address.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises the processing unit being operative to:” (Sevin II Fig. 21 illustrates a CPU 2101 within a communication device 2100)
provide a frame sequence number to the station; (Sevin II para. [0027] teaches that an optional privacy parameter includes a sequence number for the station to uniquely identify a new MAC service data unit etc.)
and
provide a seed for an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler to the station, wherein the station uses the frame sequence number and the seed for the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing physical scrambler for all packets with the second media access control address. . (Sevin II teaches in para. [0139] “For instance, for the RCM procedure specified in the standard IEEE Std 802.11-2020, every time the MAC address of the non-AP STA is changed to a new random value, counters in all Sequence Number (SN) spaces used to identify each transmitted frame (MSDU or MMPDU) are reset randomly as well as the seeds of the scramblers used at PHY level for shuffling the frame data payload before transmission or de-shuffling upon reception.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 12, Sevin does NOT teach The system of claim 10, wherein the second media access control address is generated further using a pairwise master key.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the station generates the second media access control address using a pairwise master key”. (Sevin II teaches in paras. [0186]-[0187] that a parameter K is a secret key specific to the STA and that for the client RCM procedure, according to IETF RFC 2898, the STA may generate the Pairwise Master Key (PMK) from Pre-Shared Key (PSK).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 13, Sevin does NOT teach The system of claim 10, wherein the second media access control address further using a key encryption key.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the second media access control address further using a key encryption key”. (Sevin II teaches in paras. [0226] – [0234] that the PMK is used to generate the ERCM key which may be transmitted to the AP, and the new MAC address is “then calculated in parallel by both the non-AP station and the AP.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 14, Sevin does NOT teach The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is further operative to send an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “sending an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.” (Sevin II teaches in Fig. 9b, and para. [0299] for example, a beacon frame indicating the “change date” for the new MAC:
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 15, Sevin does NOT teach “The system of claim 14, wherein the point of transition is indicated in a number of frames or a time.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the point of transition is indicated in a number of frames or a time.” (Sevin II teaches a ERCM change date as shown above in Fig. 9b. Para. [0308] teaches that the beacon frames include express time in TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) which is the point of transition.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 16, Sevin does NOT teach “The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises the processing unit being operative to: initiate the media access control address change for a plurality of stations associated with the access point at a same time.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises: initiating the media access control address change for a plurality of stations associated with the access point at a same time.” (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] a “synchronous change of the MAC address” wherein for AP initiation ERCM is intended for “all non-AP station ERCM-capable.” Sevin II also teaches in para. [0436] that an AP can initiate a change in MAC addresses via a broadcast request via a beacon frame.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Regarding claim 20, Sevin does NOT teaches “The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising sending an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “sending an action frame to the station, the action frame comprising an indication of a point of transition from the first media access control address to the second media access control address.” (Sevin II teaches as shown in Fig. 9b, above, a beacon frame that includes a transition indication for the transition from the first MAC address to the second MAC address:
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Sevin II para. [0308] teaches with regard to the change from a first MAC address to a second MAC address, that “The embodiments only requires that an indication relative to the time at which the change is to be made is shared between the non-AP station and the AP, and that the non-AP station and the AP have means for counting the time. For example, it is possible to send an actual date, as long as the non-AP station and the AP have access to a same clock or to synchronized clocks.”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
Claims 8, 17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sevin in view of Sevin II further in view of US Pat. Pub. 20240406906 to Jarkko L. Kneckt et al. (hereinafter Kneckt) further in view of US Pat. Pub. 20110286377 to Hemanth Sampath et al. (hereinafter Sampath).
Regarding claim 8, Sevin does NOT teach “The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: notifying a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; and initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment.”
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: notifying a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0436] sending a multicast beacon frame to a plurality of stations associated with an AP to change MAC address)
receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. The new IE enables the synchronous change.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
However, Sevin II does NOT teach a block acknowledgement.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications Kneckt teaches “receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change” (Kneckt teaches in para. [0152] an over the air (OTA) MAC address change wherein a link-specific AID (association identifier) may be changed at the same time as MAC addresses.
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As shown in Fig. 11, a block acknowledgement is used to acknowledge the AID which would also include the OTA MAC address change.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin with Kneckt to teach using a block acknowledgement for a MAC change. Each of Sevin and Kneckt are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Kneckt in order to improve security, privacy and communication performance when communicating in a WLAN such as an access point as taught in Kneckt para. [0102]
and initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations [[based on the block acknowledgment]]. (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. Therefore the MAC address change is changed based on synchronous change. Sevin II does NOT teach that the change is based on the block acknowledgment.)
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sampath teaches “initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment” (Sampath teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0062] – [0063] using a multicast block acknowledgement between an AP and a plurality of stations for association identifiers (AIDs) wherein an AID may be a MAC address. Stations that are not associated with the AP would not have an identifier associated with the access point, therefore the portion of the plurality of stations with the AID associated with the AP would participate.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sampath with Sevin to teach using a block acknowledgement to initiate the MAC address change. Each of Sampath and Sevin are in the field of wireless communications and AP to station communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sampath with Sevin in order to provide efficient aggregation of acknowledgement information for multiple stations in a single block acknowledgement frame as taught in Sampath para. [0078].
Regarding claim 17, Sevin does NOT teach The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises the processing unit being operative to: notify a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; receive a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; and initiate the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein the processing unit being operative to initiate the media access control address change comprises: notifying a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0436] sending a multicast beacon frame to a plurality of stations associated with an AP to change MAC address)
receive a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. The new IE enables the synchronous change.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
However, Sevin II does NOT teach a block acknowledgement.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications Kneckt teaches “receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change” (Kneckt teaches in para. [0152] an over the air (OTA) MAC address change wherein a link-specific AID (association identifier) may be changed at the same time as MAC addresses.
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As shown in Fig. 11, a block acknowledgement is used to acknowledge the AID which would also include the OTA MAC address change.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin with Kneckt to teach using a block acknowledgement for a MAC change. Each of Sevin and Kneckt are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Kneckt in order to improve security, privacy and communication performance when communicating in a WLAN such as an access point as taught in Kneckt para. [0102]
and initiate the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations [[based on the block acknowledgment]]. (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. Therefore the MAC address change is changed based on synchronous change. Sevin II does NOT teach that the change is based on the block acknowledgment.)
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sampath teaches “initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment” (Sampath teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0062] – [0063] using a multicast block acknowledgement between an AP and a plurality of stations for association identifiers (AIDs) wherein an AID may be a MAC address. Stations that are not associated with the AP would not have an identifier associated with the access point, therefore the portion of the plurality of stations with the AID associated with the AP would participate.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sampath with Sevin to teach using a block acknowledgement to initiate the MAC address change. Each of Sampath and Sevin are in the field of wireless communications and AP to station communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sampath with Sevin in order to provide efficient aggregation of acknowledgement information for multiple stations in a single block acknowledgement frame as taught in Sampath para. [0078].
Regarding claim 19, Sevin does NOT teach The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: notifying a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; and initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sevin II teaches “wherein initiating the media access control address change comprises: notifying a plurality of stations associated with the access point of the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0436] sending a multicast beacon frame to a plurality of stations associated with an AP to change MAC address)
receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change; (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. The new IE enables the synchronous change.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin and Sevin II to teach initiating a MAC address change using a seed. Each of Sevin and Sevin II are in the field of wireless communications and MAC address changes. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Sevin II in order to ease an application of a randomized and changing MAC procedure with random privacy parameters without explicit exchange of privacy parameters as taught in Sevin II para. [0010].
However, Sevin II does NOT teach a block acknowledgement.
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications Kneckt teaches “receiving a block acknowledgment from the plurality of stations indicating readiness of the plurality of stations for the media access control address change” (Kneckt teaches in para. [0152] an over the air (OTA) MAC address change wherein a link-specific AID (association identifier) may be changed at the same time as MAC addresses.
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As shown in Fig. 11, a block acknowledgement is used to acknowledge the AID which would also include the OTA MAC address change.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective date of the invention to combine Sevin with Kneckt to teach using a block acknowledgement for a MAC change. Each of Sevin and Kneckt are in the field of wireless communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sevin and Kneckt in order to improve security, privacy and communication performance when communicating in a WLAN such as an access point as taught in Kneckt para. [0102]
and initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations [[based on the block acknowledgment]]. (Sevin II teaches in para. [0235] that there is a synchronous change of the MAC address for all non-AP stations that are ERCM capable using a “new ERCM IE” to be included in the beacon frame including a number of TBTTs (target beacon transmission time) until the next transient MAC address change is effective. Therefore the MAC address change is changed based on synchronous change. Sevin II does NOT teach that the change is based on the block acknowledgment.)
In the analogous art of IEEE 802.11 wireless communications, Sampath teaches “initiating the media access control address change for at least a portion of the plurality of stations based on the block acknowledgment” (Sampath teaches in Fig. 5 and para. [0062] – [0063] using a multicast block acknowledgement between an AP and a plurality of stations for association identifiers (AIDs) wherein an AID may be a MAC address. Stations that are not associated with the AP would not have an identifier associated with the access point, therefore the portion of the plurality of stations with the AID associated with the AP would participate.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Sampath with Sevin to teach using a block acknowledgement to initiate the MAC address change. Each of Sampath and Sevin are in the field of wireless communications and AP to station communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Sampath with Sevin in order to provide efficient aggregation of acknowledgement information for multiple stations in a single block acknowledgement frame as taught in Sampath para. [0078].
Conclusion
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/MARGARET MARIE ANDERSON/Examiner, Art Unit 2412 /CHARLES C JIANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2412