DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claims 1-2, 4-23 and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (US 20240224180 A1) in view of HE (US 20260032727 A1).
For claim 1, D1 discloses a device, comprising: a processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and a transmission coordination logic (FIG. 18 (and the associated text) shows a communication device 600, with processor 610, memory 620, and Transceiver 630 reads on “transmission coordination logic”), configured to:
determine one or more carrier frequencies (FIGs. 9 and 10 and the associated text, such as “[0118] … the resource configuration may include frequency domain location information for all resource units in the corresponding resource set or frequency domain location information of a certain resource unit in the corresponding resource set. …“);
determine one or more time slots associated with the one or more carrier frequencies (FIGs. 9 and 10 and the associated text, such as “[0111] … the resource configuration may include time domain location information of all resource units in the corresponding resource set or time domain location information for one certain resource unit of the all resource units in the corresponding resource set. …“ and [0118] for carrier frequencies);
generate a control frame based on the one or more carrier frequencies or the one or more time slots (FIGs. 11-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows carrier frequencies or the one or more time slots, and FIG. 12 shows control frames config signaling, Resource config. 1 and Resource config. 2 are generated based on resource units shown in 10,); and
transmit the control frame to one or more zero power consumption devices (FIG. 2 shows a network device transmitting signal/control frame to a “zero power consumption device”).
D1 does not specifically state ambient power devices. However, HE, in the same filed of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses that a zero power consumption device is equivalent to an ambient power device (“[0056] The semi-passive zero power terminal itself does not install a conventional battery, but may use an energy harvesting module to harvest the ambient power, such as wireless radio frequency signal energy, …”). OOSA would have been motivated to replace zero power consumption device by D1 with ambient power device by HE to yield a predictable result of saving energy ([0056] of HE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine D1 and HE for the benefit of power saving ([0056] of HE).
For claim 15, D1 discloses a device, comprising: a processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and a transmission coordination logic (FIG. 18 (and the associated text) shows a communication device 600, with processor 610, memory 620, and Transceiver630 read on “transmission coordination logic”), configured to:
generate a matrix of one or more carrier frequencies and one or more time slots (FIGs. 9 and 10 and the associated text, such as “[0111] …” and “[0118] … the resource configuration may include frequency domain location information for all resource units in the corresponding resource set or frequency domain location information of a certain resource unit in the corresponding resource set. …“);
generate a control frame comprising the matrix (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots, which is consistent with the definition of the matrix defined in [0014] of the specification of this application); and
transmit the control frame to one or more ambient power devices (FIG. 2 shows a network device transmitting signal/control frame to a zero power consumption device).
D1 does not specifically state ambient power devices. However, HE, in the same filed of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses a zero power consumption device is equivalent to an ambient power device (“[0056] The semi-passive zero power terminal itself does not install a conventional battery, but may use an energy harvesting module to harvest the ambient power, such as wireless radio frequency signal energy, …”). OOSA would have been motivated to replace zero power consumption device by D1 with ambient power device by HE to yield a predictable result of saving energy ([0056] of HE).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine D1 and HE for the benefit of power saving ([0056] of HE).
Independent claim 19 is rejected because it is a method performed by the device of claim 1 and has the same subject matter.
As to claim 2, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 1, D1 further discloses: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to receive one or more uplink frames from the one or more ambient power devices in response to the control frame (FIG. 2, the msg/frame “Backscatter communication” from Zero-power device to Network device in uplink direction in view of “[0092] … FIG. 10 are configured to be used for the backscattering communication”).
As to claim 4, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices determines a frequency offset based on the control frame and transmits an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames based on the frequency offset (“[0120] … a frequency-domain offset between the second resource unit and the first signaling. The frequency-domain offset may be understood as a relative location of the second resource unit in the frequency domain with respect to the first signaling.” in view of the parent claim).
As to claim 5, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more ambient power devices transmit the one or more uplink frames by backscattering the control frame (FIG. 2, the msg/frame “Backscatter communication” from Zero-power device to Network device in uplink direction in view of “[0092] … FIG. 10 are configured to be used for the backscattering communication”).
As to claim 6, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more ambient power devices are energized or triggered by the control frame to transmit the one or more uplink frames (FIGs. 2 or 4 and associated text, such as “[0068] … an antenna of the zero-power-consumption terminal generates, through electromagnetic induction, induction currents to drive a low-power-consumption chip circuit of the zero-power-consumption terminal. … For a backscattering link, the zero-power-consumption terminal performs a backscattering implementation to transmit signals.”).
As to claim 7, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to determine a transmission order based on the one or more time slots, wherein the control frame comprises the transmission order (“[0179] … the transmission control information may be indicated by signaling to control access of the terminals, such that different terminals send data in a time-ordered manner to alleviate or solve the conflict and improve transmission performance of the system.” and “[0210] … a unit of the time domain length is microsecond, millisecond, symbol, or time slot.”).
As to claim 8, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 7, D1 further discloses: wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames based on the transmission order (“[0179] … the transmission control information may be indicated by signaling to control access of the terminals, such that different terminals send data in a time-ordered manner to alleviate or solve the conflict and improve transmission performance of the system.”).
As to claim 9, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to generate a matrix of the one or more carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots, wherein the control frame comprises the matrix (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots, which is consistent with the definition of the matrix defined in [0014] of the specification of this application).
As to claim 10, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 9, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more ambient power devices transmit the one or more uplink frames based on the matrix (FIGs. 2-4, 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots).
As to claim 11, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to:
generate one or more matrices indicative of the one or more carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots);
assign a matrix of the one or more matrices to an ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots);
generate one or more control frames comprising the one or more matrices (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots); and
transmit the control frame of the one or more control frames to corresponding ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices (FIG. 2 or 4, the msg/frame “Backscatter communication” is transmitted from Zero-power device to Network device).
As to claim 12, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 11, D1 further discloses: wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames based on corresponding matrix of the one or more matrices (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots; and FIG. 2 shows an ambient power device transmits an uplink frame based on the corresponding matrix).
As to claim 13, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, D1 further discloses: wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices selects a carrier frequency of the one or more carrier frequencies for transmitting an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames based on a random value (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots; and FIG. 2 shows an ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame based on the matrix shown in FIG. 10).
As to claim 16, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 15, D1 further discloses: wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame in response to the control frame based on the matrix (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots; and FIG. 2 shows an ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame based on the matrix shown in FIG. 10).
As to claim 17, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 15, D1 further discloses: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to determine a transmission order based on the one or more time slots, wherein the control frame is indicative of the transmission order (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows a matrix of carrier frequencies and the one or more time slots; and FIG. 2 shows an ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices transmits an uplink frame based on corresponding matrix, and “[0179] … the transmission control information may be indicated by signaling to control access of the terminals, such that different terminals send data in a time-ordered manner to alleviate or solve the conflict and improve transmission performance of the system.”).
Claims 3 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (US 20240224180 A1) in view of HE (US 20260032727 A1), further in view of YEO (US 20150172031 A1).
As to claims 3 and 20, D1 in view of HE discloses claims 2 and 19, and is silent but YEO, in the same filed of endeavor of wireless communication, disclose: wherein the transmission coordination logic is further configured to transmit a multi-user bulk acknowledgement frame to the one or more ambient power devices in response to the one or more uplink frames (FIGs. 2-7 and associated text, such as FIG. 4 in view of [0044] “… In ACK periods 105 and 110, an ACK is broadcast in response to data transmitted by each device during a previous frame, and ACKs 106 for the respective GTSs are combined in a GTS Bulk ACK frame 107 and the GTS Bulk ACK frame 107 is transmitted (broadcast) during the following ACK period. The GTS Bulk ACK may be transmitted in a packet that is different from a beacon, or sent in information of the beacon.” And FIG. 6 in view of “[0047] Referring to FIG. 6, SHR and PHR included in GTS Bulk ACK physical packet data unit (PPDU) 311 is compatible with IEEE802.15.4, and the GTS Bulk ACK PPDU 311 has GTS Bulk ACK MAC PDU 312 as a PHY payload.”; note that “Bulk”, “ACKs” or “IEEE802.15.4” suggests multi-users). OOSA would have been motivated to apply the teaching of YEO above to the device by D1 in view of HE to yield a predictable result of acknowledging data transmitted.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine YEO and D1 in view of HE for the benefit of acknowledging transmitted data ([0044] of YEO).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (US 20240224180 A1) in view of HE (US 20260032727 A1), further in view of Amtman (US 20060148521 A1).
As to claim 14, D1 in view of HE discloses claim 2, and D1 further discloses wherein each ambient power device of the one or more ambient power devices selects a carrier frequency of the one or more carrier frequencies for transmitting an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames (FIGs. 9-14 and the associated text, e.g., FIG. 10 shows selecting a matrix of carrier frequencies for transmitting an uplink frame of the one or more uplink frames).
D1 in view of HE is silent but Amtman, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses: selecting a carrier frequency of the one or more carrier frequencies for transmitting an uplink frame based on a predetermined hash value (“[0047] … transmission parameter is then selected from a preset set of transmission parameters as a function of a hash value. …“). OOSA would have been motivated to apply the teaching above to the device by D1 in view of HE to yield a predictable result of selecting transmission parameters.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine YEO and D1 in view of HE for the benefit of selecting transmission parameters ([0047] of Amtman).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANYE WU whose telephone number is (571)270-1665. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 8am-6pm.
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/JIANYE WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462