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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending in this office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the amendment filed 5/27/26 have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection.
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, 4-13 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sidhu et al (US 2016/0029384 A1) in view of Shafin et al (US 2023/0389064 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).
Sidhu does not explicitly disclose an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame.
Shafin teaches an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD) (Shafin: Fig. 1: [0053]-[0054], AP MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame (Shafin: Fig. 6; [0071]-[0085], MU-RTS TXS trigger frame allocation resource for STA1 uplink and P2P communication).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sidhu to have an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame as disclosed by Shafin to provide a system for QoS support for P2P communications (Shafin: Abstract).
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).
Sidhu does not explicitly disclose an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame.
Shafin teaches an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD) (Shafin: Fig. 1: [0053]-[0054], AP MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame (Shafin: Fig. 6; [0071]-[0085], MU-RTS TXS trigger frame allocation resource for STA1 uplink and P2P communication).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sidhu to have an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame as disclosed by Shafin to provide a system for QoS support for P2P communications (Shafin: Abstract).
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).
Sidhu does not explicitly disclose an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame.
Shafin teaches an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD) (Shafin: Fig. 1: [0053]-[0054], AP MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame (Shafin: Fig. 6; [0071]-[0085], MU-RTS TXS trigger frame allocation resource for STA1 uplink and P2P communication).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sidhu to have an access point (AP) of a multi-link device (MLD), receive, at the AP from a different AP affiliated with the MLD or with a second MLD, wherein the first wireless signal is received over a first link reserved by a multi-user request-to-send transmission opportunity sharing (MU-RTS TXS) trigger frame and the second link reserved by the MU-RTS TXS trigger frame or by a further MU-RTS TXS trigger frame as disclosed by Shafin to provide a system for QoS support for P2P communications (Shafin: Abstract).
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 10, Sidhu teaches wherein different AP is not within a direct communication range of the STA (Sidhu: Fig. 4; [0074]-[0075]).
Regarding claims 12 and 20, Sidhu teaches wherein the frame is an aggregated frame comprising one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) (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 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]).
Claims 8, 9, 15, 16 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sidhu et al (US 2016/0029384 A1) in view of Shafin et al (US 2023/0389064 A1) in further view of Pazhyannur et al (US 2024/0214973 A1).
Regarding claims 8, 15 and 18, Sidhu in view of Shafin does not explicitly disclose wherein the third frequency is in a 5.925-7.125 GHz band as defined for U-NII-S through U-NII-8 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407 and the fourth frequency is in a 5.150-5.895 GHz band as defined for U-NII-1 through U-NII-3 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407.
Pazhyannur teaches wherein the third frequency is in a 5.925-7.125 GHz band as defined for U-NII-S through U-NII-8 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407 and the fourth frequency is in a 5.150-5.895 GHz band as defined for U-NII-1 through U-NII-3 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407 (Pazhyannur: [0006]-[0009]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Sidhu wherein the third frequency is in a 5.925-7.125 GHz band as defined for U-NII-S through U-NII-8 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407 and the fourth frequency is in a 5.150-5.895 GHz band as defined for U-NII-1 through U-NII-3 under FCC 47 CFR § 15.407 as disclosed by Pazhyannur to provide a system for identifying geolocations of access points (Pazhyannur: Abstract).
Regarding claims 9 and 16, Sidhu in view of Shafin and Pazhyannur teaches wherein the first frequency is in a 5.150-5.895 GHz band as defined for U-NII-1 through U-NII-3 under FCC 47 CFR §15.407 and the second frequency is in a 5.925-7.125 GHz band as defined for U-NII-S through U-NII-8 under FCC 47 CFR Q 15.407 (Pazhyannur: [0006]-[0009]).
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 Shafin et al (US 2023/0389064 A1) in further 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, to receive the first wireless signal at the first frequency; and reserve, at the AP, 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 to reserve the first link and the second link at the AP.
Ajami teaches to reserve the first link and the second link at the AP (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 to reserve the first link and the second link at the AP 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 client is a battery-operated relay client (Ajami: [0133], power save mode operation initiated by the AP).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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