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 .
This is a Non-final action for application number 18/672,110 in response to an original application filed on 05/23/2024.
Claims 1-14 are pending and considered below.
Claims 1 and 8 are independent claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 05/23/2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HomChaudhuri et al. (US 2016/0088567 A1) herein Chaudhuri et al. in view of Hsiao et al. (US 2021/0243689 A1)
Regarding claims 1 and 8, a wireless network apparatus, which transmits signals through a channel and an access point, the wireless network apparatus comprising:
a radio frequency transceiver, [Figure 8 shows a station with transceiver 835],
a control circuit coupled to the radio frequency transceiver, wherein the control circuit is configured to execute a communication procedure, [The STA 115-g may also include a processor module 805, and memory 815 (including software (SW)) 820, a transceiver module 835, and one or more antenna(s) 840, which each may communicate, directly or indirectly, with each other (e.g., via buses 845, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 110)], and the communication procedure includes processes of:
activating the radio frequency transceiver to receive a beacon sent by the access point through the channel, [At block 435 of figure 4, the STA 115 may activate processor and radio components in preparation to receive a beacon containing a DTIM, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 79)], and determining whether or not the radio frequency transceiver receives the beacon, [At block 445 of figure 4, the STA 115 may determine whether the beacon containing the DTIM has been received, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 80)],
determining, in response to determining that the radio frequency transceiver does not receive the beacon, [If the beacon has not been received by the end of the adjusted beacon timer interval 330, the STA 115 may reenter the sleep state at block 455 of figure 4, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 80)],
and deactivating, in response to determining that the channel satisfies the predetermined condition, the radio frequency transceiver, [In cases when it is likely that the transmission is delayed (e.g., by channel congestion) then the station may wait longer for the transmission. In cases where it is likely that the transmission was missed (e.g., at long range or low congestion) the station may conserve power by returning to the sleep state early, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 40)],
Chaudhuri et al. fails to explicitly teach whether or not the channel satisfies a predetermined condition by an energy detection circuit,
Hsiao et al. teaches that the wireless access point 100 may perform action A510: transmit the management frame to the station 200 to notify the low traffic volume, the station 200 may perform action A511: enter the low power sleep mode, (Hsiao et al., Paragraphs46-48 ), Hsiao et al. further teaches The wireless access point 100 estimates a channel state according to the estimated packet number to be transmitted, and compares the channel state with the upper threshold and the lower threshold to determine whether to switch from the low power sleep mode to the active mode or continue to remain in the low power sleep mode, (Hsiao et al., Paragraph 30),
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to modify Chaudhuri et al. by including that whether or not the channel satisfies a predetermined condition by an energy detection circuit, (Hsiao et al., Paragraph 30), in order to cause the hardware components in the station to stay in an unnecessary active mode for a long time, and thus increase the power consumption of the station, (Hsiao et al., Paragraph 3).
Regarding claims 2 and 9, the wireless network apparatus wherein the communication procedure further includes:
deactivating, in response to determining that the radio frequency transceiver receives the beacon, the radio frequency transceiver, [Step # 455, wherein the station enters sleep mode (deactivates radio) after step # 465].
Regarding claims 3 and 10, the wireless network apparatus wherein the process of determining whether or not the channel satisfies the predetermined condition by the energy detection circuit includes:
determining whether or not an active time of the radio frequency transceiver reaches a first time threshold, [starting an adaptive beacon miss timer during a first evaluation interval (e.g., of duration 2 ms) may lead to missed transmissions, “2 ms is the threshold”, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 82)],
and determining, in response to determining that the active time of the radio frequency transceiver does not reach the first time threshold, whether or not the channel is in an idle state, and whether or not a continuation time of the idle state reaches a second time threshold by the energy detection circuit, [Figure 4 Ref # 450, wherein the CAB timer is a second threshold timer comparing with first timer beacon miss timer].
Regarding claims 4 and 11, the wireless network apparatus wherein the communication procedure further includes: deactivating, in response to determining that the active time of the radio frequency transceiver reaches the first time threshold, the radio frequency transceiver, [If the transmission is not received in the window, the station may enter a sleep state to conserve power. In one example, a beacon miss timer is adjusted, and the expected wireless transmission is a delivery traffic indication message (DTIM), (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 38)], and re-executing, in response to determining that the channel is not in the idle state or the continuation time of the idle state does not reach the second time threshold, the process of determining whether or not the radio frequency transceiver receives the beacon, [Steps 440-465 of figure 4].
Regarding claims 5 and 12, the wireless network apparatus wherein the control circuit activates the radio frequency transceiver at a target beacon transmission time to receive the beacon sent by the access point through the channel, and the communication procedure further includes: dividing a target time interval after the target beacon transmission time into a plurality of windows, wherein the windows respectively correspond to a plurality of time thresholds, [The sleep timers may each be associated with a window for reception of an expected transmission. If the transmission is not received in the window, the station may enter a sleep state to conserve power, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 49)].
Regarding claims 6 and 13, the wireless network apparatus wherein the process of determining whether or not the channel satisfies the predetermined condition by the energy detection circuit includes: selecting, according to an active time of the radio frequency transceiver, one of the windows to serve as a target window, [The sleep timers may each be associated with a window for reception of an expected transmission. If the transmission is not received in the window, the station may enter a sleep state to conserve power, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 38)],
and determining, by the energy detection circuit, whether or not the channel is in an idle state, and whether or not a continuation time of the idle state reaches the time threshold that corresponds to the target window, [The sleep timers may each be associated with a window for reception of an expected transmission. If the transmission is not received in the window, the station may enter a sleep state to conserve power, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 49)].
Regarding claims 7 and 14, the wireless network apparatus wherein the communication procedure further includes: re-executing, in response to determining that the channel is not in the idle state or the continuation time of the idle state does not reach the time threshold that corresponds to the target window, the process of determining whether or not the radio frequency transceiver receives the beacon, [The sleep timers may each be associated with a window for reception of an expected transmission. If the transmission is not received in the window, the station may enter a sleep state to conserve power, (Chaudhuri et al., Paragraph 49)].
Conclusion
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/SHUKRI TAHA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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