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 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)(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 1-3, 5-6, 11-13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Xia et al. (US 2023/0156687).
Regarding claim 1, Xia discloses a method of operating a wireless access point, the method comprising: wirelessly connecting to a plurality of client devices ([0118], “FIG. 15 illustrates an example embodiment 90 of an RA-RU process of a non-R-TWT member STA (e.g., STA2) and R-TWT member STAs (e.g., STA1, STA3 and STA4) when UORA is enabled in R-TWT SP.”); maintaining role information for the plurality of client devices ([0119], “Upon receiving Trigger frame 94 from the scheduling AP, the following allocations 96 take place. STA1 and STA3 both are members of this R-TWT SP and have pending frames for the scheduling AP. STA1 is allocated dedicated RUs (RU1 and RU2) and STA3 is allocated dedicated RUs (RU3 and RU4). STA1 and STA3 don’t contend for the RA-RUs and instead transmit their pending frames on their allocated RUs.”); rejecting a target wake time (TWT) negotiation with a given client device in the plurality of client devices based on a role of the given client device indicated by the maintained role information ([0128], “STA2 was not a member of this triggered R-TWT SP, however, it has pending RTA bursts to send to the scheduling AP. STA2 can send a TWT request frame to the scheduling AP to request or suggest that it be added as a new temporary member and request unicast RU(s) during this R-TWT SP. The scheduling AP may accept, suggest/dictate an alternate, or reject the requested or suggested TWT setup commands from STA2.”).
Regarding claim 2, Xia discloses the method defined in claim 1 further comprising: accepting a TWT negotiation with an additional client device in the plurality of client devices based on a role of the additional client device indicated by the maintained role information ([0128], “STA2 can send a TWT request frame to the scheduling AP to request or suggest that it be added as a new temporary member and request unicast RU(s) during this R-TWT SP. The scheduling AP may accept, suggest/dictate an alternate, or reject the requested or suggested TWT setup commands from STA2.”).
Regarding claim 3, Xia discloses the method defined in claim 2, wherein the maintained role information indicates a first user role of the given client device based on which the TWT negotiation is rejected ([0157], “FIG. 22 through FIG. 24 illustrate an example embodiment 190 of operations by a R-TWT scheduling AP. A check at block 192 determines if the AP has received a negotiation frame to request (suggest) being added as a temporary or long-term member of the current R-TWT, or to setup a new temporary or long-term R-TWT on the transmission link.”), wherein the maintained role information indicates a second user role of the additional client device based on which the TWT negotiation is accepted, and wherein the second user role is different from the first user role ([0159], “Otherwise, if check 192 is met, then at block 194 the AP responds to the requesting STA to indicate its acceptance or rejection. Then at check 196 it is determined if the AP has accepted the requesting STA as a member of the requested R-TWT on the specified transmission link.”).
Regarding claim 5, Xia discloses the method defined in claim 4, wherein the additional role is a preferred role and wherein the role is a non-preferred role ([0076], “After a R-TWT scheduled STA establishes the membership of the R-TWT scheduled by the R-TWT scheduling AP, the R-TWT scheduled STA has higher priority or is allowed to exchange frames with the R-TWT scheduling AP during the SPs of the R-TWT. On the other hand, the R-TWT scheduled STA that is not a member of the R-TWT either has a lower priority or is not allowed to exchange frames with the R-TWT scheduling AP during the SPs of the R-TWT.”).
Regarding claim 6, Xia discloses the method defined in claim 4, wherein the maintained role information comprises the number of client devices of the additional role in the plurality of client devices ([0118], “FIG. 15 illustrates an example embodiment 90 of an RA-RU process of a non-R-TWT member STA (e.g., STA2) and R-TWT member STAs (e.g., STA1, STA3 and STA4) when UORA is enabled in R-TWT SP. The RUs are shown as spanning a portion of the frequency spectrum. The figure depicts AID values 92 for STA1 through STA4, each of which had initial OBO values before the Trigger frame was sent by the scheduling AP.”).
Regarding claim 11, Xia discloses a wireless access point comprising: wireless communication circuitry; memory circuitry configured to store a client device database containing a first role for a first connected client device and containing a second role for a second connected client device; and processing circuitry coupled to the wireless communication circuitry and the memory circuitry and configured to ([0086], “Bus 14 allows connecting various devices to the CPU, such as to sensors, actuators and so forth. Instructions from memory 20 are executed on processor 18 to execute a program which implements the communications protocol, which is executed to allow the STA to perform the functions of an access point (AP) station or a regular station (non-AP STA).”): accept or initiate a negotiation with the first connected client device based on the first role ([0128], “STA2 can send a TWT request frame to the scheduling AP to request or suggest that it be added as a new temporary member and request unicast RU(s) during this R-TWT SP. The scheduling AP may accept, suggest/dictate an alternate, or reject the requested or suggested TWT setup commands from STA2.”); and reject or not initiate a negotiation with the second connected client device based on the second role ([0128], “STA2 was not a member of this triggered R-TWT SP, however, it has pending RTA bursts to send to the scheduling AP. STA2 can send a TWT request frame to the scheduling AP to request or suggest that it be added as a new temporary member and request unicast RU(s) during this R-TWT SP. The scheduling AP may accept, suggest/dictate an alternate, or reject the requested or suggested TWT setup commands from STA2.”).
Regarding claim 12, Xia discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 11, wherein the negotiations with the first and second connected client devices comprise negotiations for scheduling a time period for at least one of uplink data reception and downlink data transmission ([0100], “In this section, a mechanism is described in which non-AP R-TWT scheduled STAs (STAs), which have at least one R-TWT membership of R-TWT SP(s), which are different from the current ongoing R-TWT SP, have urgent burst UL flow to transmit and can immediately initiate a R-TWT negotiation with the scheduling AP instead of waiting for their scheduled R-TWT SP.”).
Regarding claim 13, Xia discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 12, wherein the negotiations are target wake time (TWT) negotiations and the scheduled time period comprises a TWT service period ([0077], “FIG. 11 depicts an example of performing a R-TWT SP. AP1 is an R-TWT scheduling AP which announces R-TWT1 scheduling and manages the members of R-TWT1. STA1 and STA2 are the member STAs of R-TWT1. During the R-TWT1 SP, AP1 schedules and prioritizes frame exchange with the member STAs (e.g., UL PPDU of SCS1 with STA1, and DL PPDU of SCS2 with STA2). STAs which can receive (hear) and recognize (understand) the R-TWT scheduling are called R-TWT scheduled STAs. STA3 is a R-TWT scheduled STA, but is not a member STA of R-TWT1. STA3 has to end its TXOP before the start time of R-TWT1 SP. STA3 can also enter quiet mode, or may decide not to contend for the channel during R-TWT1 SP.”).
Regarding claim 16, Xia discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to accept the negotiation with the first connected client device by transmitting, using the wireless communication circuitry, an accept message in response to a setup message received from the first connected client device ([0102], “The reserved subfield of the Request Type field in the Broadcast TWT parameter Set field can be used by the non-AP STA to request membership (temporary or long-term) of the current R-TWT SP using the newly defined “Temporary Member” subfield as shown in FIG. 25. It can also be used by the scheduling AP to indicate membership acceptance, or to assign the requested STA a new R-TWT membership of current R-TWT.”) and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to reject the negotiation with the second connected client device by transmitting, using the wireless communication circuitry, an reject message in response to a setup message received from the second connected client device ([0106], “The scheduling AP may accept or reject the request from the STA that has requested to be a new member of the current R-TWT SP or it may indicate an alternate R-TWT setup, or dictate a preferred R-TWT setup from the STA.”).
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 4, 7-9, 14-15, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia et al. (US 2023/0156687) in view of Xin et al. (US 2022/0386372).
Regarding claim 4, Xia does not disclose the rejection based on a threshold. Xin discloses the method defined in claim 1, wherein rejecting the TWT negotiation is based on a number of client devices of an additional role in the plurality of client devices meeting a threshold ([0112], “In at least one embodiment, the membership request will not be accepted if the total time is required to transmit the traffic of all the traffic streams indicated in the broadcast TWT parameter set field exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that a scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links). It is possible that there exists an upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that each scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links) in the network.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the rejection based on a threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 7, Xia does not disclose the acceptance based on threshold. Xin discloses the method defined in claim 4 further comprising: based on the number of client devices of the additional role not meeting the threshold, accepting the TWT negotiation with the given client device ([0112], “In at least one embodiment, the membership request will not be accepted if the total time is required to transmit the traffic of all the traffic streams indicated in the broadcast TWT parameter set field exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that a scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links). It is possible that there exists an upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that each scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links) in the network.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the acceptance based on threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 8, Xia does not disclose the acceptance based on threshold. Xin discloses the method defined in claim 7 further comprising: based on the number of client devices of the additional role not meeting the threshold, accepting a TWT negotiation with an additional client device of the additional role in the plurality of client devices ([0238], “The apparatus or method of any preceding implementation, further comprising rejecting the R-TWT membership request if the total time that is required to transmit the specific traffic exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that the associated AP is allowed to schedule.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the acceptance based on threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 9, Xia does not disclose acceptance based on threshold. Xin discloses the method defined in claim 8 further comprising: based on the number of client devices of the additional role meeting the threshold, accepting the TWT negotiation with the additional client device of the additional role ([0238], “The apparatus or method of any preceding implementation, further comprising rejecting the R-TWT membership request if the total time that is required to transmit the specific traffic exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that the associated AP is allowed to schedule.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the acceptance based on threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 14, Xia does not disclose the rejection based on a threshold. Xin discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 11, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to reject or not initiate the negotiation with the second connected client device when a number of connected client devices of the first role exceeds a threshold ([0112], “In at least one embodiment, the membership request will not be accepted if the total time is required to transmit the traffic of all the traffic streams indicated in the broadcast TWT parameter set field exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that a scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links). It is possible that there exists an upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that each scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links) in the network.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the rejection based on a threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 15, Xia does not disclose the acceptance based on threshold. Xin discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 14, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to accept or initiate the negotiation with the second connected client device when the number of connected client devices of the first role is below the threshold ([0112], “In at least one embodiment, the membership request will not be accepted if the total time is required to transmit the traffic of all the traffic streams indicated in the broadcast TWT parameter set field exceeds the upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that a scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links). It is possible that there exists an upper limit of the total time of all the R-TWT SPs that each scheduling AP could schedule (or a scheduling AP MLD could schedule on all links) in the network.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the acceptance based on threshold. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 17, Xia does not disclose the first state and second state. Xin discloses a wireless access point comprising: wireless communication circuitry; memory circuitry configured to store a client device database containing role information for a first set of connected client devices and for a second set of connected client devices; and processing circuitry coupled to the wireless communication circuitry and the memory circuitry and configured to ([0043], “Bus 14 allows connecting various devices to the CPU, such as to sensors, actuators and so forth. Instructions from memory 20 are executed on processor 18 to execute a program which implements the communications protocol, which is executed to allow the STA to perform the functions of an access point (AP) station or a regular station (non-AP STA).”): indiscriminately provide a service to any client device in the first and second sets of connected client devices based on the client device database, in a first state, satisfying a criterion ([0067], “In particular, the flow diagram depicts the STA reusing 172 the Broadcast TWT Parameter Set field for R-TWT signaling, and the selection 174 of either Option 1 or Option 2. For Option 1, the STA sets 176 the most significant bit of the Broadcast TWT Recommendation subfield to a first state (e.g., “1”) to indicate that the signaling is for R-TWT, as well as the other bits for R-TWT parameter setting. Then at block 180 the STA uses other reserved bits in the Broadcast TWT Parameters set field for R-TWT parameter setting.”); and selectively provide the service to any client device in the first set of connected client devices based on the client device database, in a second state, not satisfying the criterion ([0068], “Otherwise, if at block 174 it is determined to use Option 2, then the STA sets 178 the Broadcast TWT Recommendation subfield to a value greater than or equal to 4, to indicate the signaling is for a different type of R-TWT, after which execution reaches block 180 as previously described.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the first state and second state. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 18, Xia does not disclose the state TWT. Xin discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 17, wherein the service comprises a target wake time operation ([0069], “FIG. 7 illustrates an example embodiment 190 describing a STA identifying whether the received Broadcast TWT Parameter Set field indicates R-TWT signaling when Option1 from FIG. 6 is used. It should be appreciated that the STA could be a TWT scheduling AP or an individual STA.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Xin to have the state TWT. The motivation would have been to reduce traffic (e.g., Xin [0112]).
Regarding claim 19, Xia discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 17, wherein the client device database, in the first state, has a first number of connected client devices in the first set, wherein the client device database, in the second state, has a second number of connected client devices in the second set, and wherein the second number is greater than the first number ([0118], “FIG. 15 illustrates an example embodiment 90 of an RA-RU process of a non-R-TWT member STA (e.g., STA2) and R-TWT member STAs (e.g., STA1, STA3 and STA4) when UORA is enabled in R-TWT SP. The RUs are shown as spanning a portion of the frequency spectrum. The figure depicts AID values 92 for STA1 through STA4, each of which had initial OBO values before the Trigger frame was sent by the scheduling AP.”).
Regarding claim 20, Xia discloses the wireless access point defined in claim 17, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to obtain the role information in the client device database as part of network access authentication operations for the first and second sets of connected client devices ([0119], “Upon receiving Trigger frame 94 from the scheduling AP, the following allocations 96 take place. STA1 and STA3 both are members of this R-TWT SP and have pending frames for the scheduling AP. STA1 is allocated dedicated RUs (RU1 and RU2) and STA3 is allocated dedicated RUs (RU3 and RU4). STA1 and STA3 don’t contend for the RA-RUs and instead transmit their pending frames on their allocated RUs.”).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xia et al. (US 2023/0156687) in view of Kanamarlapudi et al. (US 2022/0330146.
Regarding claim 10, Xia does not disclose the power save mode after rejection. Kanamarlapudi discloses the method defined in claim 1 further comprising: after rejecting the TWT negotiation with the given client device, performing a power save mode operation with the given client device ([0073], “In some examples, for instance, the QoS manager 310 may select or otherwise configure the access device 305 into a power mode in which the access device 305 (for example, the WLAN AP functionality of the access device 305) rejects any requests from the one or more STAs served by the access device 305 to enter a sleep mode if the cellular modem 315 is operating in the RRC connected mode. In other words, the access device 305 may reject any TWT requests received from a STA served by the access device 305 or otherwise refrain from configuring a STA served by the access device 305 with a TWT.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Xia in view of Kanamarlapudi to have the power save mode after rejection. The motivation would have been to improve power savings (e.g., Kanamarlapudi [0023]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Nick A Sundara whose telephone number is (571)272-6749. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7:30-5:30 EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jae Y. Lee can be reached at (571) 270-3936. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/NICK ANON SUNDARA/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479
Prosecution Insights