DETAILED ACTION
Claim Objections
Claims 9 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities:
NAV and MAPC are being used for the first time in the claim set. The acronyms should be expanded at least once when first used in the claim set.
Appropriate correction is required.
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)(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.
Claims 1-5, 8-13 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jeffery et al. (USPN 9,497,781).
Regarding claim 1, Jefferey teaches an apparatus comprising: one or more memories [Fig. 1, 116]; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the memory, a combination of the one or more processors configured to: generate a message comprising (i) a first network allocation vector (NAV) indicating a first time period and (ii) a second NAV indicating a second time period [Fig. 5 and 7, Col. 8, lines 12-43, first NAV indicating first time period when transmissions are not allowed, Col. 9, lines 16-45, once NAV timer expires the data can be transmitted during second timer period]; and transmit the message, wherein the first NAV indicates to a first access point assigned to an overlapping basic service set to defer transmissions during the first time period, and wherein the second NAV indicates to a second access point assigned to a multi-access point coordination (MAPC) group that transmissions are allowed during the second time period [Col. 8, line 12-43 and Col. 9, lines 16-45, transmission of data is delayed during first period when NAV indicates that data transmission has to be delayed, data transmission resumes at second time period once NAV indicates that data can be transmitted, Col. 2, line 65 – Col. 3, line 25, Col. 6, lines 2-16, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show that the BSSID which are basic service set identifiers and collocated and are overlapping BSSIDs, also see Col. 4, lines 10-59 that indicates that overlapping basic service set is being used and all access points are assigned to same group that perform coordination for transmission from multiple access points].
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Jefferey teaches the apparatus is assigned to the MAPC group [Fig. 1, 100, MAPC group is assigned to the apparatus where plurality of transceivers are used for MAPC group].
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Jefferey teaches the apparatus is a leader of the MAPC group [Fig. 1, 100, apparatus is leading the MAPC group by using plurality of transceivers].
Regarding claims 4, 12 and 18, Jefferey teaches the message is transmitted at a start of a MAPC transmission opportunity (TXOP) [Fig. 5, Col. 8, lines 12-43].
Regarding claims 5, 13 and 19, Jefferey teaches the first time period occurs during the MAPC TXOP [Fig. 5, 508].
Regarding claim 8, Jefferey teaches the first time period and the second time period at least partially overlap [Fig. 5].
Regarding claim 9, Jefferey teaches a method comprising: generating, by a first access point, a message comprising (i) a first network allocation vector (NAV) indicating a first time period and (ii) a second NAV indicating a second time period [Fig. 5 and 7, Col. 8, lines 12-43, first NAV indicating first time period when transmissions are not allowed, Col. 9, lines 16-45, once NAV timer expires the data can be transmitted during second timer period]; and transmitting, by the first access point, the message, wherein the first NAV indicates to a second access point assigned to an overlapping basic service set to defer transmissions during the first time period, and wherein the second NAV indicates to a third access point assigned to a multi-access point coordination (MAPC) group that transmissions are allowed during the second time period [Col. 8, line 12-43 and Col. 9, lines 16-45, transmission of data is delayed during first period when NAV indicates that data transmission has to be delayed, data transmission resumes at second time period once NAV indicates that data can be transmitted, Col. 2, line 65 – Col. 3, line 25, Col. 6, lines 2-16, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show that the BSSID which are basic service set identifiers and collocated and are overlapping BSSIDs, also see Col. 4, lines 10-59 that indicates that overlapping basic service set is being used and all access points are assigned to same group that perform coordination for transmission from multiple access points].
Regarding claim 16, Jefferey teaches a system comprising: a first access point assigned to a MAPC group [Fig. 1, 100]; and a second access point assigned to the MAPC group and configured to: generate a message comprising (i) a first network allocation vector (NAV) indicating a first time period and (ii) a second NAV indicating a second time period [Fig. 5 and 7, Col. 8, lines 12-43, first NAV indicating first time period when transmissions are not allowed, Col. 9, lines 16-45, once NAV timer expires the data can be transmitted during second timer period]; and transmit the message, wherein the first NAV indicates to access points assigned to an overlapping basic service set to defer transmissions during the first time period, and wherein the second NAV indicates to the first access point that transmissions are allowed during the second time period [Col. 8, line 12-43 and Col. 9, lines 16-45, transmission of data is delayed during first period when NAV indicates that data transmission has to be delayed, data transmission resumes at second time period once NAV indicates that data can be transmitted, Col. 2, line 65 – Col. 3, line 25, Col. 6, lines 2-16, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 show that the BSSID which are basic service set identifiers and collocated and are overlapping BSSIDs, also see Col. 4, lines 10-59 that indicates that overlapping basic service set is being used and all access points are assigned to same group that perform coordination for transmission from multiple access points].
Regarding claim 17, Jefferey teaches the second access point is a leader of the MAPC group [Fig. 1, 100].
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 6, 14 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jeffery et al. (USPN 9,497,781) in view of Lopez et al. (USPN 12,520,340).
Regarding claims 6, 14 and 20, Jefferey teaches an apparatus, a method and a system as discussed in rejection of claims 1, 9 and 16.
However, Jefferey does not teach generating the message is based on a signal, from a device associated with the second access point, indicating that the device supports dual NAVs.
Lopez teaches generating the message is based on a signal, from a device associated with the second access point, indicating that the device supports dual NAVs [Col. 7, lines 25-52].
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to generate message based on an indication that the device supports dual NAVs so that TXOP sharing can be done.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 15 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
El Ferkouss et al. (USPN 12,317,220) teaches a first cause unanchored access point that includes processor configured to receive location information from the anchor access points and to perform distance measurements to the anchor access points to determine the respective locations in the wireless network for becoming pseudo-anchor access points.
Zorgui et al. (USPN 12,207,222) teaches receiving assistance data associated with a positioning procedure, where the assistance data indicates access points and indicates a type associated with connection to a cellular core network for each of the access points.
Zhang et al. (US-PGPUB 2021/0195494) teaches providing access point of the communication network serving the connection to user equipment. The target access points are determined.
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/Chandrahas B Patel/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464