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 § 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 4-6, 9-11, 16-18, 21, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lou, Hanqing (WO 2020/185586 A1) in view of Park et al (US 2023/0103807 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Lou discloses a method for wireless communication, comprising:
receiving, by a station (STA), a first frame sent by an access point (AP), wherein the first frame comprises a multi-AP candidate set information field, and the multi-AP candidate set information field comprises at least one candidate set information field (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set),
wherein the candidate set information field of the at least one candidate set information field comprises a multi-AP scheme support field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme) and multiple AP information fields (115th paragraph, members of the same multi-AP set may indicate one or more APs within the same multi-AP set),
wherein the multi-AP scheme support field is used to indicate a multi-AP coordination mode supported by a multi-AP candidate set corresponding to a current candidate set information field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme), and an m-th AP information field of the multiple AP information fields is used to indicate related information of an m-th member AP of the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field, wherein m is a positive integer (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set).
Lou does not disclose that wherein the multi-AP scheme support field comprises at least one of following: a coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA) support field, a coordinated spatial reuse (C-SR) support field, a coordinated beamforming (C-BF) support field, a joint transmission (J-TX) support field, and a coordinated uplink multiple-user multiple input multiple output (C-UL MU MIMO) support field, and wherein the C-OFDMA support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-OFDMA, the C-SR support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-SR, the C-BF support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-BF, the J-TX support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports J-TX, and the C-UL MU MIMO support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-UL MU MIMO.
Park discloses that wherein the multi-AP capability information fields include join Tx field, C-BF field, C-OFDMA field, C-SR field (Fig. 29). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include multi-AP capability fields in Lou’s system, as suggested by Park, to indicate multi-AP capabilities.
Regarding claims 4, 9, 15, and 16, Lou discloses that wherein before receiving, by the STA, the first frame, the method further comprises: sending, by the STA, second information to the AP, wherein the second information is used to request multi-AP candidate set information, wherein the second information is sent through a probe request frame, wherein the probe request frame comprises at least one of a service set identifier (SSID) field and an SSID list field, wherein a first value of a length field corresponding to the SSID field is used to request a first SSID, the first SSID being a legacy SSID or the first SSID being an SSID of virtual basic service set (VBSS); and a second value of the length field corresponding to the SSID field is used to request multiple SSIDs, the multiple SSIDs being all legacy SSIDs where the AP is located, or the multiple SSIDs being SSIDs of all VBSSs where the AP is located, wherein the SSID list field is used to request at least one SSID, the at least one SSID comprising legacy SSID(s) and/or SSID(s) of VBSS(s) (119th paragraph, STA transmits the probe request frame including SSID, BSSID, or a virtual BSSI. The probe request frame may include an indication indicating that it is requesting a multi-AP probe response or a multi-AP response).
Regarding claims 5, 10, and 17, Lou discloses that wherein the probe request frame further comprises a multi-AP candidate set info request field, and the multi-AP candidate set info request field comprises an extra SSID indicator field, wherein the extra SSID indicator field is used to instruct the AP to return, to the STA, SSIDs of VBSSs and all legacy SSIDs where the AP is located (119th paragraph, STA transmits the probe request frame including SSID, BSSID, or a virtual BSSI. The probe request frame may include an indication indicating that it is requesting a multi-AP probe response or a multi-AP response. Herein, the probe response includes virtual BSSID, SSID, schedule, members of multi-AP set); or, the extra SSID indicator field is used to instruct the AP to return, to the STA, SSIDs of all VBSSs where the AP is located, and to not return any legacy SSID to the STA (alternative).
Regarding claim 6, Lou discloses a station (STA) (Fig. 1B), comprising a processor (Fig. 1B) and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program (Fig. 1B, memory 130 and 132), and the processor is configured to call and run the program stored in the memory to control the STA to perform:
receiving a first frame sent by an access point (AP), wherein the first frame comprises a multi-AP candidate set information field, and the multi-AP candidate set information field comprises at least one candidate set information field (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set),
wherein the candidate set information field(s) of the at least one candidate set information field comprises a multi-AP scheme support field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme) and multiple AP information fields (115th paragraph, members of the same multi-AP set may indicate one or more APs within the same multi-AP set),
wherein the multi-AP scheme support field is used to indicate a multi-AP coordination mode supported by a multi-AP candidate set corresponding to a current candidate set information field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme), and an m-th AP information field of the multiple AP information fields is used to indicate related information of an m-th member AP of the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field, wherein m is a positive integer (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set).
Lou does not disclose that wherein the multi-AP scheme support field comprises at least one of following: a coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA) support field, a coordinated spatial reuse (C-SR) support field, a coordinated beamforming (C-BF) support field, a joint transmission (J-TX) support field, and a coordinated uplink multiple-user multiple input multiple output (C-UL MU MIMO) support field, and wherein the C-OFDMA support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-OFDMA, the C-SR support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-SR, the C-BF support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-BF, the J-TX support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports J-TX, and the C-UL MU MIMO support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-UL MU MIMO.
Park discloses that wherein the multi-AP capability information fields include join Tx field, C-BF field, C-OFDMA field, C-SR field (Fig. 29). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include multi-AP capability fields in Lou’s system, as suggested by Park, to indicate multi-AP capabilities.
Regarding claim 11, Lou discloses an access point (AP), comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program (Fig. 9 AP must include at least a processor and memory storing computer instructions) and the processor is configured to call and run the program stored in the memory to control the STA to perform:
sending receiving, by an access pint (AP), a first frame sent to a station (STA), wherein the first frame comprises a multi-AP candidate set information field, and the multi-AP candidate set information field comprises at least one candidate set information field (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set),
wherein the candidate set information field of the at least one candidate set information field comprises a multi-AP scheme support field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme) and multiple AP information fields (115th paragraph, members of the same multi-AP set may indicate one or more APs within the same multi-AP set),
wherein the multi-AP scheme support field is used to indicate a multi-AP coordination mode supported by a multi-AP candidate set corresponding to a current candidate set information field (159th paragraph, multi-AP scheme), and an m-th AP information field of the multiple AP information fields is used to indicate related information of an m-th member AP of the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field, wherein m is a positive integer (111th paragraph, an AP, which may be a part of a multi-AP set SSID, where the AP may be the master AP or slave AP, may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set).
Lou does not disclose that wherein the multi-AP scheme support field comprises at least one of following: a coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access (C-OFDMA) support field, a coordinated spatial reuse (C-SR) support field, a coordinated beamforming (C-BF) support field, a joint transmission (J-TX) support field, and a coordinated uplink multiple-user multiple input multiple output (C-UL MU MIMO) support field, and wherein the C-OFDMA support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-OFDMA, the C-SR support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-SR, the C-BF support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-BF, the J-TX support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports J-TX, and the C-UL MU MIMO support field is used to indicate whether the multi-AP candidate set corresponding to the current candidate set information field supports C-UL MU MIMO.
Park discloses that wherein the multi-AP capability information fields include join Tx field, C-BF field, C-OFDMA field, C-SR field (Fig. 29). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include multi-AP capability fields in Lou’s system, as suggested by Park, to indicate multi-AP capabilities.
Regarding claim 18, Lou discloses that wherein the processor is further configured to call and run the computer program stored in the memory to control the AP to perform: receiving an association request frame sent by the STA, the association request frame is used to request association with the AP, wherein the association request frame comprises at least one piece of indication information, the at least one piece of indication information is used to indicate at least one of: a service set identifier (SSID) of at least one virtual basic service set (VBSS) with which the STA requests to be associated, and at least one legacy SSID with which the STA requests to be associated (113th paragraph, STA transmits an association request including virtual BSSID); wherein the legacy SSID is a string, the string being used to identify infrastructure basic service sets (BSSs) that comprise an extended service set (ESS) (Fig. 8, same SSID for multi-AP in BSSs having ESS) or the string being used to identify a non-infrastructure BSS (alternative); and
sending an association response frame to the STA, wherein the association response frame at least comprises association identifier (AID) information corresponding to legacy SSID(s) with which the STA requests to be associated and/or virtual AID (VAID) information corresponding to SSID(s) of VBSS(s) with which the STA requests to be associated(111th and 148th paragraphs, AP may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set. The probe response may be applied to association response).
Regarding claims 21 and 24, Lou discloses sending an association request frame to the AP, the association request frame is used to request association with the AP, wherein the association request frame comprises at least one piece of indication information, the at least one piece of indication information is used to indicate at least one of: a service set identifier (SSID) of at least one virtual basic service set (VBSS) with which the STA requests to be associated, and at least one legacy SSID with which the STA requests to be associated (113th paragraph, STA transmits an association request including virtual BSSID); wherein the legacy SSID is a string, the string being used to identify infrastructure basic service sets (BSSs) that comprise an extended service set (ESS) (Fig. 8, same SSID for multi-AP in BSSs having ESS) or the string being used to identify a non-infrastructure BSS (alternative); and
receiving an association response frame from the AP, wherein the association response frame at least comprises association identifier (AID) information corresponding to legacy SSID(s) with which the STA requests to be associated and/or virtual AID (VAID) information corresponding to SSID(s) of VBSS(s) with which the STA requests to be associated(111th and 148th paragraphs, AP may include one or more of the following information in its beacon, short beacon, discovery frame, probe response: virtual BSSID, SSID, multi-AP beacon schedule, and members of same multi-AP set. The probe response may be applied to association response).
Claims 19, 22, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lou and Park in view of Ho et al (US 2022/0022033 A1).
Regarding claims 19, 22, and 25, Lou discloses forming multi-AP coordination (Figs. 8-9). Lou does not disclose that wherein the association response frame further comprises coordinator key holder identifier (ID) information and key generation method information, wherein the coordinator key holder ID information is configured to generate a pairwise transient key (PTK) and a pairwise master key (PMK) between the STA and the coordinator. Ho discloses receiving response to association request having a secret key for generating a PMK and/or PTK in handshake (6th and 58th paragraphs). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include secret key in association response in Lou’s system, as suggested by Ho, to enhance security among stations.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lou and Park in view of Huang, Lei (WO 2021/201771 A1).
Regarding claim 20, Lou discloses forming multi-AP coordination (Figs. 8-9). Lou does not disclose that wherein the processor is further configured to call and run the computer program stored in the memory to control the AP to perform: sending shared information to a second AP, wherein the second AP and the AP belong to a same legacy SSID, or the second AP and the AP belong to a same SSID of VBSS, the shared information comprising a media access control (MAC) address of the STA and/or multi-AP coordination capability information of the STA; and receiving confirmation information sent by the second AP, wherein the confirmation information is used to indicate whether the second AP accepts an association request of the STA. Huang discloses that the sharing AP transmitting a frame to a shared AP in a multi-AP environment (Fig. 3B, block 320). The frame includes MAC address of intended STAs (Fig., 5B, block 514) and AP set ID (Fig. 508). The shared AP may transmit an acknowledgment frame to the sharing AP (82nd paragraph). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include setting up multi-AP coordination for a station in Lou’s system, as suggested by Huang, to coordinate multi-AP transmissions to the station.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23, 26, and 27 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 4-6, 9-11, and 15-27 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.
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.
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ANH VU H. LY
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2472
/ANH VU H LY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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