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 .
This is responsive to Application 18/613,098 filed 03/21/24 in which claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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.
Claims 8, 9, 15, 16 and 18 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.
The terms “5GHz frequency range” and “6GHz frequency range” in claims 8, 9, 15, 16 and 18 are a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The terms “5GHz frequency range” and “6GHz frequency range” are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
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, 4-13 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sidhu et al (US 2016/0029384 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Sidhu teaches an access point (AP) (Sidhu: Fig. 4; gateway 408), comprising: a processing device operable to:
receive, at the AP from a different AP, a first wireless signal at a first frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075], gateway 408/access point receives communication from gateway 406/different access point on frequency 2.4GHz; see also Figs. 5-6);
convert, at the AP, the first wireless signal at the first frequency to a second wireless signal at a second frequency, wherein the second frequency is higher than the first frequency; and send, from the AP for transmission to a station (STA), the second wireless signal at the second frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075], gateway 408 communicates with device 404/402 on frequency 5Ghz).
Regarding claim 11, Sidhu teaches a method for wireless local area network (WLAN) medium access control (MAC) relay, comprising:
selecting, at an access point, a relay client based on one or more of a signal strength or a network congestion; and forwarding, from the access point for transmission to a station (STA) using the relay client, a frame, wherein the access point is not within a direct communication range of the STA (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0066], [0073]-[0074], [0186], due to relative signal strength, the gateway 408 forward signal from gateway 406 to device 404/402).
Regarding claim 17, Sidhu teaches a relay client, comprising: a processing device operable to:
receive, at a relay client from an AP, a first wireless signal at a first frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075], gateway 408/access point receives communication from gateway 406/different access point on frequency 2.4GHz; see also Figs. 5-6),
convert, at the relay client, the first wireless signal at the first frequency to a second wireless signal at a second frequency, wherein the second frequency is higher than the first frequency; and send, from the relay client for transmission to a station (STA), the second wireless signal at the second frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075], gateway 408 communicates with device 404/402 on frequency 5Ghz).
Regarding claim 4, Sidhu teaches wherein the first wireless signal is up-converted without decoding a packet of the first wireless signal (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075]).
Regarding claim 5, Sidhu teaches wherein the processing device is further operable to: amplify, at the access point, the first wireless signal to compensate for attenuation across distance (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0066], [0074], [0229]).
Regarding claim 6, Sidhu teaches wherein the processing device is further operable to: receive, at the AP from the different AP, a control message operable to indicate a relay start (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0065], [0091], [0093], gateway 408 receive data from gateway 406 to be forwarded).
Regarding claim 7, Sidhu teaches wherein the processing device is further operable to: receive, at the AP from the STA, a third wireless signal at a third frequency, convert, at the AP, the third wireless signal at the third frequency to a fourth wireless signal at a fourth frequency, wherein the fourth frequency is lower than the third frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075], device 404/402 communicate with gateway 408 that forwards data to gateway 406).
Regarding claim 8, Sidhu teaches wherein the third frequency is in a 6GHz frequency range and the fourth frequency is in a 5GHz frequency range (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0163]).
Regarding claim 9, Sidhu teaches wherein the first frequency is in a 5GHz frequency range and the second frequency is in a 6 GHz frequency range (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0163]).
Regarding claim 10, Sidhu teaches wherein different AP is not within a direct communication range of the STA (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075]).
Regarding claim 12, Sidhu teaches wherein the frame is a single aggregated frame (Sidhu: [0098]-[0100]).
Regarding claim 13, Sidhu teaches wherein selecting the relay client is based on quality of service (QoS) (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0055], [0128]).
Regarding claim 15, Sidhu teaches sending, from the access point to the relay client for transmission to the STA, the frame using a signal in a 5 GHz frequency range (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0163]).
Regarding claim 16, Sidhu teaches sending, from the relay client to the STA, the frame using a signal in a 6 GHz frequency range (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0163]).
Regarding claim 18, Sidhu teaches wherein the first frequency is in a 5 GHz frequency range and the second frequency is in a 6 GHz frequency range (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0163]).
Regarding claim 19, Sidhu teaches wherein the processing device is further operable to forward, at the relay client, a frame received from the AP for transmission to a station (STA), wherein the AP is not within a direct communication range of the STA (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075]).
Regarding claim 20, Sidhu teaches wherein the frame is a single aggregated frame (Sidhu: [0098]-[0100]).
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 2, 3 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sidhu et al (US 2016/0029384 A1) in view of Ajami et al (US 2024/0292456 A1).
Regarding claim 2, Sidhu teaches wherein the processing device is further operable to: reserve, at the AP, a first communication link used to receive the first wireless signal at the first frequency; and reserve, at the AP, a second communication link used to send the second wireless signal at the second frequency (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [00745]-[0075], establishing path at the gateway 408 to act as relay between gateway 406 and device 402/404).
Sishu does not explicitly disclose wherein one or more of the first communication link or the second communication link are reserved using a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) transmission opportunity (TxOP) sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame.
Ajami teaches wherein one or more of the first communication link or the second communication link are reserved using a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) transmission opportunity (TxOP) sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame (Ajami: [0097]-[0099]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sidhu wherein one or more of the first communication link or the second communication link are reserved using a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) transmission opportunity (TxOP) sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame as disclose by Ajami to provide a system for resource allocation in support of p2p (Ajami: Abstract).
Regarding claim 3, Sidhu in view of Ajami teaches wherein the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame has a transmission opportunity sharing mode subfield value equal to 2 (Ajami: [0097]).
Regarding claim 14, Sidhu in view of Ajami teaches reducing energy usage compared to a baseline energy usage when the relay is a battery-operated relay (Ajami: [0133], power save mode operation initiated by the AP).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478