DETAILED ACTION
Status of Case
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 7/21/2026.
Claims 1-12 and 14-20 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 7/21/2026 with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current 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 1-7 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ryu (USPAN 2024/0107604) in view of Xia (USPAN 2021/0410149).
Consider claims 1 and 20, Ryu discloses a first wireless access point (AP), comprising: a processing system that includes processor circuitry and memory circuitry that stores code (see figure 1, wherein disclosed is a plurality of Aps 102-1 through 102-n, which Examiner submits inherently comprise at least said processing system comprising said processor circuitry and said memory circuitry), and a corresponding method for wireless communication by a first wireless access point (AP) (see figure 8, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method), to:
obtain a transmit opportunity; transmit, during the obtained transmit opportunity and to a plurality of wireless devices comprising at least one second wireless AP of a plurality of second wireless APs, a first frame comprising an indication associated with sharing a portion of the obtained transmit opportunity with the at least one second wireless AP of the plurality of second wireless APs, the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity being a shared transmit opportunity for coordinated time division multiple access with the plurality of second wireless APs (see paragraph 72: the M-AP control frame can be a modified multi user request to send triggered TXOP sharing trigger frame; also, see figure 8, element 810);
receive a response frame from the at least one second wireless AP of the plurality of second wireless APs, the response frame comprising an identifier associated with the at least one second wireless AP (see paragraphs 72-73: an immediate response frame (sent from a shared AP to a sharing AP) in response to the M-AP control frame can be a CS-to-self frame in which the RA field is set to the value of the transmitter’s MAC address (e.g., shared AP)); and
share the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity with the at least one second wireless AP for communication in accordance with receiving the response frame comprising the identifier associated with the at least one second wireless AP (see paragraph 72: upon receiving the frame, the shared AP2 performs multi-AP transmission using, such as, coordinated TDMA (C-TDMA), coordinated OFDMA (C-OFDMA)).
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Although Ryu discloses that the first frame comprises at least one of a buffer status report poll frame, a basic trigger frame, a variant of a multi-user block address request trigger frame, a multi-user request to send trigger frame, or another trigger frame (see paragraph 72: the M-AP control frame can be a modified Multi User Request to Send (MU-RTS) triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) trigger frame), Ryu does not specifically disclose a buffer status report poll trigger frame.
Xia, which discusses shared transmission opportunities and therefore is in a similar related area of art as Ryu and the instant application, discloses a buffer status report poll trigger frame (see paragraph 128: “multiple STAs can send UL DATA simultaneously within a shared TXOP [transmission opportunity], which improves TXOP utilization efficiency…the AP usually sends a trigger frame (e.g., Buffer Status Report Polling (BSRP)) to the non-AP STAs to inquire on their buffer status and their traffic priorities”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Ryu and combine it with the noted teachings of Xia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for sharing a transmit opportunity (TXOP) with other stations in a single Basic Service Set (BSS) scenario in the frequency domain (see paragraph 5 of Xia).
Consider claims 2 and 15, Ryu discloses that the first frame comprises one or more fields, amongst a plurality of receiver specific fields, intended for the at least one second wireless AP indicating at least the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity (see paragraph 72: the receiver address (RA) field of the modified MU-RTS TXS Trigger frame can be set to the shared AP’s MAC address).
Consider claims 3 and 16, Ryu discloses that the indication associated with sharing the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity comprises an indication of a stream classification service, an estimated timing of a transmit opportunity allocation frame, an estimated length of the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity, or an estimated length of the obtained transmit opportunity, or any combination thereof (see paragraph 75: TXOP Duration or duration field in the MAC header).
Consider claims 4 and 17, Ryu discloses that the indication associated with sharing the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity comprises a query to determine interest of the at least one second wireless AP of the plurality of second wireless APs to use the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity, an indication of allocating the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity to the at least one second wireless AP of the plurality of second wireless APs, or both (see paragraph 72 and figure 8, element 810: RA = AP2).
Consider claims 5 and 18, Ryu discloses that the identifier of the at least one second wireless AP is indicated via a transmitter address associated with the at least one second wireless AP (see paragraph 72: an immediate response frame (sent from a shared AP to a sharing AP) in response to the M-AP Control frame can be a CTS-to-self frame in which the RA field is set to the value of the transmitter’s MAC address (e.g., shared AP)).
Consider claim 6, Ryu discloses that the response frame comprises an indication that the at least one second wireless AP will communicate via the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity (see paragraph 72: the reception of the CTS-to-self frame causes the update of the intra-BSS NAV. Thus, the CTS-to-self frame includes the duration of the portion of the TXOP that will be used by the AP2).
Consider claim 7, Ryu discloses that the response frame comprises an indication of a duration that the at least one second wireless AP will communicate via the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity (see paragraph 72: the reception of the CTS-to-self frame causes the update of the intra-BSS NAV. Thus, the CTS-to-self frame includes the duration of the portion of the TXOP that will be used by the AP2).
Consider claim 9, Ryu discloses that the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless AP to: determine a schedule for the plurality of second wireless APs to communicate during the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity; and output an indication of the schedule, wherein the indication of the schedule comprises an indication of one or more resource units for the plurality of second wireless APs to communicate (see paragraph 74: the sharing AP may transmit a modified Multi User Request to Send (MU-RTS) triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) trigger frame to a shared AP to share the time and frequency resource during a TXOP).
Consider claim 10, Ryu discloses that the one or more resource units comprise dedicated resource units associated with the plurality of second wireless APs or a broadcast resource unit dedicated for coordinated time division multiple access (see paragraph 74: the sharing AP may transmit a modified Multi User Request to Send (MU-RTS) triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) trigger frame to a shared AP to share the time and frequency resource during a TXOP).
Consider claim 11, Ryu discloses that the plurality of wireless devices comprise one or more wireless stations associated with the first wireless AP (see paragraph 72: associated AP).
Consider claim 12, Ryu discloses that the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless AP to: receive, from the one or more wireless stations and via a first resource unit indicated by the first frame, a second response frame comprising a trigger-based physical protocol data unit (see element 814 in figure 8: TB-PPDU is received; also, see paragraph 74: the non-AP STA (e.g., a UHR STA or a non-UHR non-AP STA) that receives a trigger frame from an associated AP (e.g., shared AP) may transmit a TB PPDU during the TXOP coordinated by the sharing AP when it does not have a non-zero value of the basic NAV timer)).
Consider claim 14, Ryu discloses a first wireless access point (AP), comprising: a processing system that includes processor circuitry and memory circuitry that stores code, the processing system configured to cause the first wireless AP to (see figure 1, wherein disclosed is a plurality of Aps 102-1 through 102-n, which Examiner submits inherently comprise at least said processing system comprising said processor circuitry and said memory circuitry):
receive a first frame comprising an indication associated with sharing a portion of a transmit opportunity obtained by a second wireless AP, the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity being a shared transmit opportunity for coordinated time division multiple access; transmit a response frame in response to the first frame, the response frame comprising an identifier associated with the first wireless AP; and communicate with one or more wireless stations during the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity in accordance with transmitting the response frame comprising the identifier associated with the first wireless AP (see paragraph 72: the M-AP control frame can be a modified multi user request to send triggered TXOP sharing trigger frame; also, see figure 8, element 810; see paragraphs 72-73: an immediate response frame (sent from a shared AP to a sharing AP) in response to the M-AP control frame can be a CS-to-self frame in which the RA field is set to the value of the transmitter’s MAC address (e.g., shared AP); see paragraph 72: upon receiving the frame, the shared AP2 performs multi-AP transmission using, such as, coordinated TDMA (C-TDMA), coordinated OFDMA (C-OFDMA)).
Although Ryu discloses that the first frame comprises at least one of a buffer status report poll frame, a basic trigger frame, a variant of a multi-user block address request trigger frame, a multi-user request to send trigger frame, or another trigger frame (see paragraph 72: the M-AP control frame can be a modified Multi User Request to Send (MU-RTS) triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) trigger frame), Ryu does not specifically disclose a buffer status report poll trigger frame.
Xia discloses a buffer status report poll trigger frame (see paragraph 128: “multiple STAs can send UL DATA simultaneously within a shared TXOP [transmission opportunity], which improves TXOP utilization efficiency…the AP usually sends a trigger frame (e.g., Buffer Status Report Polling (BSRP)) to the non-AP STAs to inquire on their buffer status and their traffic priorities”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Ryu and combine it with the noted teachings of Xia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for sharing a transmit opportunity (TXOP) with other stations in a single Basic Service Set (BSS) scenario in the frequency domain (see paragraph 5 of Xia).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ryu (USPAN 2024/0107604) in view of Xia (USPAN 2021/0410149) and Liu (EP 2534772 B1).
Consider claim 8, Ryu does not specifically disclose that the response frame comprises an indication of a bandwidth over which the at least one second wireless AP will communicate during the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity.
Liu discloses that the response frame comprises an indication of a bandwidth over which the at least one second wireless AP will communicate during the portion of the obtained transmit opportunity (see claim 10: determine a bandwidth configuration for the multi-user frame based on the CTS responses, the bandwidth configuration indicating one or more frequency bands that are available during at least a portion of the TXOP [transmission opportunity] and select a smallest bandwidth configuration indicated by the CTS responses).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Ryu and combine it with the noted teachings of Liu. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for an increased and efficient utilization of a multi-channel capacity during a transmission opportunity (see paragraph 9 of Liu).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov.
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/JAMAL JAVAID/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
JAMAL JAVAID
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2412
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