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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 22 June 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 28 July 2026, has been entered and carefully considered.
Claims 1, 8, and 15 are amended.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
The outstanding objection to the drawings is withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Figure 10.
The outstanding rejections of Claims 1-5, 8-10, 12, 13, 15-18 and 20 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) and Claims 6, 7, 11, 14 and 19 under 35 U.S.C. 103 are withdrawn in light of Applicant’s amendment to Claims 1, 8 and 15.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informalities: the Office recommends amending “wherein the indication indicated” to “wherein the indication indicates” in order to maintain consistent verb tense in the claim language. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-5, 8-10, 12, 13, 15-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ho et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2024/0107411), hereinafter Ho, in view of Chu et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 20240138007), hereinafter Chu.
Regarding Claim 1, Ho discloses a processor comprising memory and circuitry (Figure 2 – user terminals 120m-120x comprise memory 282m-282x, processors (e.g., data and spatial processors), and controllers (280m-280x)) configured to cause a wireless device to perform operations comprising:
generating signaling associated with a transition from a first access point to a second access point, wherein at least one of the first access point or the second access point is associated with a wireless local area network (WLAN) (Figure 9 and paragraph 0081 – in a client-initiated make-before-break handover procedure occurs when the station sends a message to a serving AP to enable a second link to a target AP; paragraph 0001 – Ho’s disclosure relates to the techniques for WLAN make before break handover; paragraph 0025 – multi-link operation (MLO) architecture in 802.11 is disclosed);
generate, as part of the signaling, an uplink reorder buffer handling request (Figures 7 and 9; paragraphs 0076-0078 – as part of the handover procedure, the reorder buffer is transferred from the serving AP to the target AP).
However, Ho does not disclose the uplink reorder buffer handling request indicating how an uplink reorder buffered frame, in at least one of a retry queue or a pending queue of the first access point, is to be handled in association with the transition to the second access point; and providing the uplink reorder buffer handling request to at least one of the first access point or the second access point. In an analogous art, Chu discloses this. Specifically, Chu discloses when roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the sequence number being used for next frame and receiver cache information are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD. The distributed AP MLD1 400 can have reorder buffers, and the Tx buffer control is maintained at the distributed AP MLD1 400. When roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the Tx Window (WinStartO, WinSizeO), scoreboard context information (i.e., a list or bitmap for all of the sequence numbers used), reorder buffer information (WinStartR, WinSizeR, WinStartB, WinSizeB) (i.e., pending queue) are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD (Figure 6 and paragraph 0080). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho and Chu. One would have been motivated to do so in order to allow for duplication detection a data frames when transitioning between access points (refer to paragraph 0080 of Chu).
Regarding Claim 2, Ho discloses wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request indicates whether the wireless device requests that the first access point: forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the Internet (Figure 7 – at step 2, after handover is initiated, the serving AP (AP1) continues a bidirectional data flow with the gateway for backhaul data (as shown in Figure 9)); forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the second access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0077 – the reordering buffer is forwarded to the target AP as part of the client-initiated handover); or discard uplink reorder buffered frames (Note: this is claimed in the alternative).
Regarding Claim 3, Ho discloses wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request is provided to the first access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0081 – in a client-initiated make-before-break handover procedure occurs when the station sends a message to a serving AP to enable a second link to a target AP).
Regarding Claim 4, Ho discloses the uplink reorder buffer handling request is provided to the second access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0077 - the MLD context is relocated, including the reordering buffer, is provided to the target AP).
Regarding Claim 5, Ho discloses the memory and circuitry are further configured to cause the wireless device to: transmit one or more uplink frames to the second access point, wherein sequence numbers for the one or more uplink frames are selected based at least in part on the uplink reorder buffer handling request (Figure 9 and paragraphs 0077-0078 – the MLD context location is based on an UL sequence number value, and the target AP starts receiving uplink packets from the station to combine with its reordering buffer).
Regarding Claim 8, Ho discloses a method, comprising: by a first access point device associated with a wireless local area network (WLAN) (Figure 7, AP1 or Figure 9, serving AP; paragraph 0001 – Ho’s disclosure relates to the techniques for WLAN make before break handover; paragraph 0025 – multi-link operation (MLO) architecture in 802.11 is disclosed):
receiving an indication to transition a wireless device from the first access point device to a second access point device (Figure 9 and paragraph 0081 – in a client-initiated make-before-break handover procedure occurs when the station sends a message to a serving AP to enable a second link to a target AP); and
receiving an indication of an uplink reorder buffer handling request for the transition (Figures 7 and 9; paragraphs 0076-0078 – as part of the handover procedure initiated by the station, the reorder buffer is transferred from the serving AP to the target AP).
However, Ho does not disclose the uplink reorder buffer handling request indicates how an uplink reorder buffered frame, in at least one of a retry queue or a pending queue of the first access point, is to be handled in association with the transition to the second access point. In an analogous art, Chu discloses this. Specifically, Chu discloses when roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the sequence number being used for next frame and receiver cache information are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD. The distributed AP MLD1 400 can have reorder buffers, and the Tx buffer control is maintained at the distributed AP MLD1 400. When roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the Tx Window (WinStartO, WinSizeO), scoreboard context information (i.e., a list or bitmap for all of the sequence numbers used), reorder buffer information (WinStartR, WinSizeR, WinStartB, WinSizeB) (i.e., pending queue) are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD (Figure 6 and paragraph 0080). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho and Chu. One would have been motivated to do so in order to allow for duplication detection a data frames when transitioning between access points (refer to paragraph 0080 of Chu).
Regarding Claim 9, Ho discloses the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the first access point forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the Internet, wherein the method further comprises, by the first access point device: forwarding uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device to the Internet (Figure 7 – at step 2, after handover is initiated, the serving AP (AP1) continues a bidirectional data flow with the gateway for backhaul data (as shown in Figure 9)).
Regarding Claim 10, Ho discloses wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the first access point forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the second access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0077 – the reordering buffer is forwarded to the target AP as part of the client-initiated handover), wherein the method further comprises, by the first access point device: forwarding uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device to the second access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0077 – the reordering buffer is forwarded to the target AP as part of the client-initiated handover).
Regarding Claim 12, Ho discloses the indication of the uplink reorder buffer handling request for the transition is received from the wireless device (Figure 9 and paragraph 0081 – in a client-initiated make-before-break handover procedure occurs when the station sends a message to a serving AP to enable a second link to a target AP).
Regarding Claim 13, Ho discloses providing an indication of the uplink reorder buffer handling request for the transition to the second access point (Figure 9 and paragraph 0077 - the MLD context is relocated, including the reordering buffer, is provided to the target AP).
Regarding Claim 15, Ho discloses a first access point device (Figure 2 – access point 110), comprising:
an antenna (Figure 2, antennas 224a-224ap);
a radio operably coupled to the antenna (Figure 2 – transceivers 222a-222ap coupled to TX and RX spatial processors); and
a processor operably coupled to the radio (Figure 2 – TX and RX data processors coupled to the TX and RX spatial processors);
wherein the first access point device is configured to:
receive an indication to transition a wireless device from a second access point device to the first access point device, wherein at least one of the first access point or the second access point is associated with a wireless local area network (WLAN) (Figure 9 and paragraph 0081 – in a client-initiated make-before-break handover procedure occurs when the station sends a message to a serving AP (i.e., second access point) to enable a second link to a target AP (i.e., first access point); paragraph 0001 – Ho’s disclosure relates to the techniques for WLAN make before break handover; paragraph 0025 – multi-link operation (MLO) architecture in 802.11 is disclosed); and
receive an indication of an uplink reorder buffer handling request for the transition (Figures 7 and 9; paragraphs 0076-0078 – as part of the handover procedure initiated by the station, the reorder buffer is transferred from the serving AP to the target AP).
However, Ho does not disclose wherein the indication indicated how an uplink reorder buffered frame, in at least one of a retry queue or a pending queue of the first access point, is to be handled in association with the transition to the second access point. In an analogous art, Chu discloses this. Specifically, Chu discloses when roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the sequence number being used for next frame and receiver cache information are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD. The distributed AP MLD1 400 can have reorder buffers, and the Tx buffer control is maintained at the distributed AP MLD1 400. When roaming from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD, the Tx Window (WinStartO, WinSizeO), scoreboard context information (i.e., a list or bitmap for all of the sequence numbers used), reorder buffer information (WinStartR, WinSizeR, WinStartB, WinSizeB) (i.e., pending queue) are transferred from the current serving AP MLD to the next serving AP MLD (Figure 6 and paragraph 0080). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho and Chu. One would have been motivated to do so in order to allow for duplication detection a data frames when transitioning between access points (refer to paragraph 0080 of Chu).
Regarding Claim 16, Ho discloses wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the second access point forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the first access point, wherein the first access point device is further configured to: receive, from the second access point, uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device that include metadata for identifying the uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device (paragraph 0077 – the MLD context is moved from the serving AP to the target AP, where MLD context location is based on agreed timer and an UL sequence number (SN) value, among other things. MLD context may comprise any of association context, security context, block-ACK (BA) sessions, TID-to-link mapping, a DL packets buffer, the ROB, and PN (packet number)).
Regarding Claim 17, Ho discloses the first access point device is further configured to: identify the uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device based at least in part on the metadata (paragraph 0077 - MLD context may comprise any of association context, security context, block-ACK (BA) sessions, TID-to-link mapping, a DL packets buffer, the ROB, and PN (packet number). During the MLD context relocation, AP1 terminates sending UL packets to gateway, then sends the MLD context to AP2); and copy the uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device to an uplink reorder buffer for the wireless device based at least in part on identifying the uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device (paragraph 0077 – the MLD context (including the RO buffer) is forwarded (i.e., copied) to the target AP).
Regarding Claim 18, Ho discloses the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the second access point forward uplink reorder buffered frames to the Internet (Figure 7 – at step 2, after handover is initiated, the serving AP (AP1) continues a bidirectional data flow with the gateway for backhaul data (as shown in Figure 9)).
Regarding Claim 20, Ho discloses the first access point device is further configured to: receive one or more uplink frames from the wireless device, wherein a sequence numbering scheme for the one or more uplink frames is determined based at least in part on the uplink reorder buffer handling request (Figure 9 and paragraphs 0077-0078 – the MLD context location is based on an UL sequence number value, and the target AP starts receiving uplink packets from the station to combine with its reordering buffer).
Claims 6, 7 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ho in view of Chu, as applied to Claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Sachs et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2008/0192696), hereinafter Sachs.
Regarding Claim 6, the combination of Ho and Chu discloses the limitations of Claim 1, as described above. However, while Ho generally discloses block acknowledgement (paragraph 0067), the aforementioned references do not disclose the memory and circuitry are further configured to cause the wireless device to: store one or more uplink frames in a pending queue of a transmission buffer, wherein the one or more uplink frames stored in the pending queue include one or more frames that have been transmitted and acknowledged and have larger sequence numbers than at least one frame in a retry queue of the transmission buffer. In an analogous art, Sachs discloses this. Specifically, Sachs discloses a re-sequencing algorithm executed by a user terminal during handover from a serving AP to a target AP (paragraph 0112), where the user terminal tracks a last forwarded packet and next packet based on sequence numbers (paragraph 0118). The packets are stored in separate memory spaces in first and second buffer memories (paragraph 0122 and shown in Figure 2 as part of user terminal 240). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho / Chu and Sachs. One would have been motivated to do so in order to in-order receipt and processing of packets during a handover (refer to paragraph 0005 of Sachs).
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Ho, Chu and Sachs further discloses the memory and circuitry are further configured to cause the wireless device to: determine to use the pending queue based at least in part on the transition from the first access point to the second access point (refer to paragraphs 0112 and 0118 of Sachs for processing next frames stored in a buffer memory for forwarding). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine Ho / Chu and Sachs. One would have been motivated to do so in order to in-order receipt and processing of packets during a handover (refer to paragraph 0005 of Sachs).
Regarding Claim 14, the combination of Ho and Chu discloses the limitations of Claim 8, as described above. However, the aforementioned references do not disclose the indication of the uplink reorder buffer handling request for the transition is received from the second access point device. In an analogous art, Sachs discloses this. Specifically, Sachs discloses the second access point sending a handover intention notify message to the first access point as part of a handover over process for the user terminal (refer to Figure 4A and paragraph 0102). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further combine Ho / Chu and Sachs. One would have been motivated to do so in order to in-order receipt and processing of packets during a handover (refer to paragraph 0005 of Sachs).
Claims 11 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ho in view of Chu, as applied to Claims 8 and 15 above, and further in view of Hart et al (United States Pre-Grant Publication 2024/0306225), hereinafter Hart.
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of Ho and Chu discloses the limitations of Claim 8, as described above. However, the aforementioned references do not disclose wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the first access point discard uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device, wherein the method further comprises, by the first access point device: discarding uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device. In an analogous art, Hart discloses this. Specifically, Hart discloses a current anchor AP MLD (CAAM) flushing buffers for the STA prior to roaming to the target AP (paragraph 0041). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho / Chu and Hart. One would have been motivated to do so in order to transfer a station to an access point that can provide a stronger connection, lower congestion, and increased bandwidth (refer to paragraph 0013 of Hart).
Regarding Claim 19, the combination of Ho and Chu discloses the limitations of Claim 15, as described above. However, the aforementioned references do not disclose wherein the uplink reorder buffer handling request requests that the second access point discard uplink reorder buffered frames for the wireless device. In an analogous art, Hart discloses this. Specifically, Hart discloses a current anchor AP MLD (CAAM) flushing buffers for the STA prior to roaming to the target AP (paragraph 0041). Thus, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Ho / Chu and Hart. One would have been motivated to do so in order to transfer a station to an access point that can provide a stronger connection, lower congestion, and increased bandwidth (refer to paragraph 0013 of Hart).
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 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDREW W. CHRISS whose telephone number is (571)272-1774. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm ET.
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/ANDREW W CHRISS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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