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 references listed in the Information Disclosure Statement(s) filed on 9/10/2025 have been considered by the examiner (see attached PTO-1449 form or PTO/SB/08A and 08B forms).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 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 Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claim(s) 1 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (US 2024/0121143, hereinafter “Panasonic”) in view of Liu et al. (US 2010/0260138, hereinafter “Liu”).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Panasonic discloses a wireless device to functions as a master access point (AP) to perform multi-AP cooperation with a slave AP (see Fig. 10), the wireless device comprising:
a radio frequency transceiver (communication apparatus 1500, including transmitter 1502, receiver 1504, Fig. 15);
a memory device storing a set of instructions (circuitry 1514 including software, para. 0171, Fig. 15, and para. 0196; implemented as a computer program in a storage medium, para. 0009); and
a processor coupled to the memory device (controller 1506, software/hardware execution of tasks, with provided data processing and storage, see also para. 0171, implemented using a general purpose processor), wherein the set of instructions when executed by the processor causes the master AP to:
generate a first null data packet (NDP) announcement frame, wherein the first NDP announcement frame explicitly includes first information for a first non-AP station (STA) and second information for the slave AP, wherein the first information indicates to the first STA that a NDP frame is to be transmitted to the first STA and the second information indicates to the slave AP to simultaneously wirelessly transmit a NDP frame to the first STA (EHT NDP Announcement frame 1008, slave AP 1006 transmits NDP 1010 according to control information indicated in the EHT NDP Announcement fra, me 1008, para. 0137; NDP Announcement Frame 708 is transmitted to stations see Fig. 7, para. 0101, and NDP Announcement Frame 1008 has the same format as NDPA 708, and Stations 1004 transmit CQI frames 1012 containing a BF report prepared according to the control information in the NDPA frame 1008, para. 0137; hence the EHT NDPA frame 1008 contains control information for slave AP 1006 transmitting an NDP frame and control information for processing NDP frames received by stations 1004, NDP frames 1010 transmitted simultaneously, Fig. 10); and
wirelessly transmit the NDP announcement frame to the first STA and the slave AP (master AP 1002 transmits the EHT NDP Announcement Frame 1008, para. 0136, Fig. 10).
Panasonic does not expressly disclose transmitting the NDP announcement frame as a multicast frame.
Liu discloses a wireless communication system in which access points multicast NDP announcement frames using a multicast address (para. 0132).
Because both Panasonic and Liu disclose transmitting NDP announcement frames, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the application was filed, to substitute one NDP announcement frame transmission scheme for another for the predictable result of multicasting an NDP announcement frame.
Claim(s) 1, 4-5, 9-10, 13, and 16-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (US 2021/0044333, cited in an IDS, hereinafter “Jiang”) in view of Liu et al. (US 2010/0260138, hereinafter “Liu”).
Regarding claims 1 and 13, Jiang discloses a wireless device to functions as a master access point (AP) to perform multi-AP cooperation with a slave AP (AP1, Figs. 1-2, and Fig. 6 for both AP and non-AP stations, according to any of sequence charts Figs. 1-3), the wireless device comprising:
a radio frequency transceiver (transceiver 610, Fig. 6);
a memory device storing a set of instructions (memory 608, storing information to configure processing circuitry to perform operations, Fig. 6, para. 0034-0035); and
a processor coupled to the memory device (processing circuitry 606, Fig. 6, para. 0034-0035), wherein the set of instructions when executed by the processor causes the master AP to:
generate a first null data packet (NDP) announcement frame (AP1 configured to encode NDPA frame, para. 0019),
wherein the first NDP announcement frame explicitly includes first information for a first non-AP station (STA) and second information for the slave AP (NDPA for transmission to a second AP (AP2) and a plurality of stations (STAs), including fields identifying APs participating in channel sounding including AP1 and AP2, para. 0019; and NDPA frame includes STA Info 1-n, Fig. 4; STA info field indicates whether a sounding sequence is for JT or CBF, para. 0017),
wherein the first information indicates to the first STA that a NDP frame is to be transmitted to the first STA (NDPA for transmission to a AP2 and plurality of stations STAs, station field in NDPA indicates whether the sounding sequence in NDPs are for JT or CBF, para. 0017, 0019, inherent that indication of type of sounding sequence in an NDP also indicates that an NDP will be transmitted) and
the second information indicates to the slave AP to wirelessly transmit a NDP frame to the first STA (NDPA for transmission to AP2 including fields identifying Aps participating in the channel sounding including AP2, where AP2 transmits NDP2, para. 0019, Fig. 2); and
wirelessly transmit the NDP announcement frame to the first STA and the slave AP (AP1 configured to encode the NDPA frame for transmission to AP2 and plurality of stations STAs, para. 0019, see also Abstract).
Jiang does not expressly disclose transmitting the NDP announcement frame as a multicast frame.
Liu discloses a wireless communication system in which access points multicast NDP announcement frames using a multicast address (para. 0132).
Because both Jiang and Liu disclose transmitting NDP announcement frames, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the application was filed, to substitute one NDP announcement frame transmission scheme for another for the predictable result of multicasting an NDP announcement frame.
Regarding claims 4 and 16, Jiang further discloses wherein the first information is included in a first STA information field of the first NDP announcement frame and the second information is included in a second STA information field of the first NDP announcement frame (STA Info 1-n and AP info 1-m, wherein the AP info field reuses the format of STA info field, para. 0016-0017, Fig. 4),
wherein the first STA information field is addressed to the first STA and the second STA information field is addressed to the slave AP (AP info field has BSSID or other ID of the AP, para. 0016, and each station info field carries indication whether sounding sequence for corresponding station is for JT or CBF, para. 0017, i.e. “addressed” to a station).
Regarding claims 5 and 17, Jiang further discloses wherein the second information includes an indication of an AP cooperation type, wherein the AP cooperation type is joint transmission or coordinated beamforming (information field indicating whether the sounding sequence is for Joint transmission (JT) or CBF is a common information field, para. 0026; and information in the common info field may be combined into the AP info field, para. 0016).
Regarding claim 9, Jiang discloses a method by a wireless device functioning as a slave access point (AP) to perform multi-AP cooperation with a master AP (Slave AP2, Figs. 1-2), the method comprising:
wirelessly receiving a null data packet (NDP) announcement frame from the master AP, (NDPA transmitted to AP2, para. 0019, Figs. 1-2), wherein the NDP announcement indicates to the slave AP that the slave AP is to wirelessly transmit a NDP frame to a first non-AP station (STA) (NDPA for transmission to AP2 including fields identifying APs participating in the channel sounding including AP2, where AP2 transmits NDP2, para. 0019, Fig. 2); and
wirelessly transmitting a NDP frame to the first STA in response to wirelessly receiving the NDP announcement frame from the master AP (NDPA for transmission to AP2 including fields identifying APs participating in the channel sounding including AP2, where AP2 transmits NDP2, para. 0019, Fig. 2).
Regarding claim 10, Jiang further discloses wirelessly receiving a compressed beamforming channel quality indicator (CBF/CQI) frame from the first STA after wirelessly transmitting the NDP frame to the first STA (AP2 receives CSI reports from STAs in response to NDP1 and/orNDP2, see Figs. 1-2, para 0030-0031).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (US 2021/0044333, hereinafter “Jiang”) in view of Liu et al. (US 2010/0260138, hereinafter “Liu”), as applied to claim 10 above, and further in view of Huang et al. (US 2024/0121143, hereinafter “Panasonic”).
Regarding claim 11, Jiang and Liu disclose everything applied to claim 10 above, and further discloses the channel sounding is performed for multi-AP Joint transmission (JT) and coordinated beamforming (CBF) (see abstract).
However, Jiang does not expressly disclose wireless transmitting a joint transmission frame to the first station jointly with the master AP.
Panasonic discloses a similar multi-AP sounding and joint transmission system in which a master AP 1002 transmits an NDP Announcement (NDPA) frame 1008 to both a slave AP 1006 and Stations 1-N, where the slave AP 1006 transmits an NDP 1010 according to control information indicated in the NDPA frame 1008 (para. 0136-0137, Fig. 10, particularly NDP 1010 transmitted by Slave AP 1006). The Stations transmit compressed beamforming/CQI to the APs which then perform joint transmission 1050 by both master and slave APs (Fig. 10, para. 0138-0139).
Because both Jiang and Panasonic both disclose multi-AP sounding and joint transmission systems using NDPA frames and NDPs, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the application was filed to substitute one transmission scheme for another, for the predictable result of specifying that the Master and Slave APs wirelessly transmit joint transmission data frames.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 6-8, 12, 14-15, and 18-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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 DAVID S HUANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah Wang can be reached at (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/David S Huang/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 1/8/2026
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