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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 5 and 14 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claims 5 and 14, in lines 3-4, replace “the resource subunit” with --a resource subunit--. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 7, 12-13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hedayat et al (US 2021/0352663 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Hedayat discloses a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) transmission method (Fig. 15), comprising:
receiving, by a first device, a trigger frame from a second device, wherein the trigger frame indicates a first resource allocated to the first device, the first resource comprises N resource subunits (87th and 197th paragraphs and Fig. 8, host STA 804 and/or AP may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA 812 or guest STA 806), the trigger frame comprises first indication information, the first indication information separately indicates whether the first device is allowed to perform trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) transmission on each of the N resource subunits (100th, 101st, and 164th paragraphs, guest STA is allowed to use one set of guest STA resources and/or allowed to use multiple sets of guest resources which the host STA has indicated to be available. The trigger frame includes an indication of an allowed set and/or allowed sets of resources) when the first device performs (TB PPDU) transmission by using some of the N resource subunits (Fig. 15, block 1516, TD PPDU is transmitted on shared RUs), and N is a positive integer (87th paragraph, set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands. Herein, a set of RUs or set of 20 MHz sub-bands is a positive integer); and
sending, by the first device, a TB PPDU to the second device on some of the N resource subunits based on the first indication information (118th paragraph, guest STA transmits L-STF/LTF/SIG and RL-SIG based on the attributes obtained from the trigger frame, transmits STF/LTF on shared RUs of a TB frame and transmits its payload on one or more shared occasion RUs).
Regarding claim 2, Hedayat discloses that wherein a resource subunit in the N resource subunits (87th paragraph, host STA may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA) is located in a first frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband, e.g., channel bandwidth > 20 MHz), and the first frequency-domain subblock comprises at least one second frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband includes at least 20 MHz bandwidth channel).
Regarding claim 3, Hedayat discloses a first communication apparatus (Fig. 26, STA 2600), comprising:
a receiver (Fig. 26, RX 2622), configured to receive a trigger frame from a second communication apparatus, wherein the trigger frame indicates a first resource allocated to the first communication apparatus, the first resource comprises N resource subunits (87th and 197th paragraphs and Fig. 8, host STA 804 and/or AP may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA 812 or guest STA 806), the trigger frame comprises first indication information, the first indication information separately indicates whether the first communication apparatus is allowed to perform TB PPDU transmission on each of the N resource subunits (100th, 101st, and 164th paragraphs, guest STA is allowed to use one set of guest STA resources and/or allowed to use multiple sets of guest resources which the host STA has indicated to be available. The trigger frame includes an indication of an allowed set and/or allowed sets of resources) when the first communication apparatus performs trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) transmission by using some of the N resource subunits (Fig. 15, block 1516, TD PPDU is transmitted on shared RUs), and N is a positive integer (87th paragraph, set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands. Herein, a set of RUs or set of 20 MHz sub-bands is a positive integer); and
a transmitter (Fig. 26, TX 2624), configured to send a TB PPDU to the second communication apparatus on some of the N resource subunits based on the first indication information (118th paragraph, guest STA transmits L-STF/LTF/SIG and RL-SIG based on the attributes obtained from the trigger frame, transmits STF/LTF on shared RUs of a TB frame and transmits its payload on one or more shared occasion RUs).
Regarding claim 4, Hedayat discloses that wherein a resource subunit in the N resource subunits (87th paragraph, host STA may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA) is located in a first frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband, e.g., channel bandwidth > 20 MHz), and the first frequency-domain subblock comprises at least one second frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband includes at least 20 MHz bandwidth channel).
Regarding claim 7, Hedayat discloses that wherein the first resource comprises at least one resource unit (RU) (87th paragraph, host STA may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA) or multiple-resource unit (MRU) smaller than 996 subcarriers (alternative).
Regarding claim 12, Hedayat discloses a second communication apparatus (Fig. 26, STA 2600), comprising:
a transmitter (Fig. 26, TX 2624), configured to send a trigger frame to a first communication apparatus, wherein the trigger frame indicates a first resource allocated to the first communication apparatus, the first resource comprises N resource subunits (87th and 197th paragraphs and Fig. 8, host STA 804 and/or AP may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA 812 or guest STA 806), the trigger frame comprises first indication information, the first indication information separately indicates whether the first communication apparatus is allowed to perform trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) transmission on each of the N resource subunits (100th, 101st, and 164th paragraphs, guest STA is allowed to use one set of guest STA resources and/or allowed to use multiple sets of guest resources which the host STA has indicated to be available. The trigger frame includes an indication of an allowed set and/or allowed sets of resources) when the first communication apparatus performs trigger-based physical layer protocol data unit (TB PPDU) transmission by using some of the N resource subunits (Fig. 15, block 1516, TD PPDU is transmitted on shared RUs), and N is a positive integer (87th paragraph, set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands. Herein, a set of RUs or set of 20 MHz sub-bands is a positive integer); and
a receiver (Fig. 26, RX 2622), configured to receive, from the first communication apparatus, a TB PPDU sent on some of the N resource subunits (118th paragraph, guest STA transmits L-STF/LTF/SIG and RL-SIG based on the attributes obtained from the trigger frame, transmits STF/LTF on shared RUs of a TB frame and transmits its payload on one or more shared occasion RUs).
Regarding claim 13, Hedayat discloses that wherein a resource subunit in the N resource subunits (87th paragraph, host STA may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA) is located in a first frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband, e.g., channel bandwidth > 20 MHz), and the first frequency-domain subblock comprises at least one second frequency-domain subblock (Fig. 21, wideband includes at least 20 MHz bandwidth channel).
Regarding claim 16, Hedayat discloses that wherein the first resource comprises at least one resource unit (RU) (87th paragraph, host STA may transmit a trigger frame identifying a list of frequency resources, e.g., set of RUs or 20 MHz sub-bands to be used by guest STA) or multiple-resource unit (MRU) smaller than 996 subcarriers (alternative).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-6, 8-11, 14-15, and 17-20 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
Noh et al (US US Patent No. 10,904,920 B1), same field of endeavor, discloses trigger-based uplink transmission for multi-user (Figs. 12-21).
Lu et al (US 2024/0097842 A1), same field of endeavor, discloses TD PPDU transmission (Fig. 12).
Seok (US 2024/0137080 A1), same field of endeavor, discloses uplink MU transmission in HE (Figs. 18-25).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANH VU H LY whose telephone number is (571)272-3175. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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ANH VU H. LY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/ANH VU H LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472