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 claims filed on 5/31/2024.
Claims 1-19 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 5/31/2024 has been considered by Examiner.
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, 3, 8, 10, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Patil (USPAN 2020/0137702) in view of Patil2 (USPAN 2019/0208462) and Asterjadhi (USPAN 2018/0115950).
Consider claims 1 and 13, Patil discloses an access point (AP) (see figure 2, wherein disclosed is an Access Point (AP) 110) comprising: a transmitter (TX) circuit (see transmitter circuit 210,220, and 222a in figure 2); a receiver (RX) circuit (see receiver circuit 222ap, 240, 242, and 244); and a control circuit, arranged to negotiate with at least one another AP via the TX circuit and the RX circuit (see control circuit 230 in figure 2), and a corresponding wireless communication method employed by an access point (AP) (see figure 13, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method):
arranged to negotiate with another AP via the TX circuit and the RX circuit, for setting up a coordinated service period (SP), wherein the control circuit is further arranged to receive a request frame from said another AP via the RX circuit, wherein the control circuit is further arranged to send a response frame to said another AP via the TX circuit (see figure 13, as well as paragraphs 128-138: “The operations 1300 begin, at block 1302, by obtaining, from a first AP, a first message. In certain aspects, the apparatus is associated with a wireless node (e.g., hosted by a station), the first message polling the wireless node to gather coordination (e.g., synchronization) information from a second AP, the first AP and the second AP being associated with different BSSs”; “At block 1304, the apparatus obtains, from the second AP, a second message comprising the coordination information in response to obtaining the first message, at block 1306, generates a third message comprising the coordination information, and at block 1308, outputs the third message for transmission to the first AP.”; “For unmanaged APs, an AP interested in coordination gathers coordination information (TSF/SP information) by polling associated stations. For example, the AP requests an associated station to provide a beacon report (e.g., an 11k beacon report), which includes a TWT element and a TSF advertised in the beacon of neighboring APs. The beam report may be requested by sending a request and extended request elements to the station. The request may include one or more identifiers, each of which may correspond to a set of default requested elements.”; “the coordination information (e.g., synchronization and/or SP information) may be requested via an event request/report mechanism (e.g., 11v event request/report mechanism). An event request/report mechanism may involve requesting specific information from stations and the response to the request may be tailored towards the request.”),
said another AP belongs to a second BSS different from the first BSS (see element 1302 of figure 13: “the first AP and the second AP being associated with different basic service sets (BSSs)).
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Patil does not specifically disclose that the request frame comprises a plurality of SP parameters.
Patil2 discloses that the request frame comprises a plurality of SP parameters (see paragraph 81: “Each nonTx BSSID may advertise a TWT element to indicate BSS specific TWT parameter values (i.e., service period schedule and properties)”, wherein the service period schedule and properties = a plurality of SP parameters).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Patil2. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method relating to advertisement of communication schedules for multiple basic service sets (see paragraph 2 of Patil2).
Patil does not specifically disclose that the AP is arranged to send a first announcement frame inside the first BSS to inform that the coordinated SP has been created.
Asterjadhi discloses that a device is arranged to send a first announcement frame inside a first BSS to inform that a SP has been created (see paragraph 81: AP service announcement to inform the AP that the STAs are present during the SP. In an “announced” scheme, a STA may send an UL transmission to the AP to indicate that the STA is present during that SP. In an “unannounced” scheme, the AP may assume the STA is present and can start servicing the STA without waiting for any explicit indication from the STA.).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Asterjadhi. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for coordinating target wake-up times (TWTs) of different nodes and indicating, during TWT service periods, which wireless nodes are to be serviced (see paragraph 2 of Asterjadhi).
Consider claims 3 and 14, Patil discloses that after sending the response frame and before sending the announcement frame, the control circuit is further arranged to receive a setup frame from said another AP via the RX circuit for setting up the coordinated SP (see paragraphs 128-138, wherein disclosed is said setup for the coordinated SP).
Consider claim 8, Patil discloses that information collected from the AP is provided to said another AP, and the plurality of SP parameters are determined based at least partly on the information collected from the AP (see paragraph 132: an AP interested in coordination gathers coordination information by polling associated stations).
Consider claim 10, Patil discloses that the plurality of SP parameters do not comprise a parameter indicative of a periodic property of the coordinated SP (see paragraphs 132-134: the SP parameters do not comprise a parameter indicative of repetitions of the SP).
Claims 4-7 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Patil (USPAN 2020/0137702) in view of in view of Patil2 (USPAN 2019/0208462), Asterjadhi (USPAN 2018/0115950), and Jia (USPN 11,153,824).
Consider claims 4 and 16, although Patil discloses receiving an announcement frame from said another AP via the RX circuit for the coordinated SP after sending the first announcement frame (see above), Patil does not specifically disclose to receive a teardown announcement frame.
Jia discloses to receive a teardown announcement frame (see col. 2 lines 39-42: modification request such as a teardown announcement).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Jia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for maintenance and monitoring of target wait time (TWT) sessions (see col. 2 lines 10-12 of Jia).
Consider claims 5 and 17, although Patil discloses sending an announcement frame inside the first BSS regarding the coordinated SP (see above), Patil does not specifically disclose to inform about a session being torn down.
Jia discloses to inform about a session being torn down (see col. 2 lines 39-42: modification request such as a teardown announcement).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Jia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for maintenance and monitoring of target wait time (TWT) sessions (see col. 2 lines 10-12 of Jia).
Consider claims 6 and 18, although Patil discloses sending an announcement to another AP via the TX circuit for the coordinated SP after sending the first announcement frame (see above), Patil does not specifically disclose to send a teardown announcement frame.
Jia discloses to send a teardown announcement frame (see col. 2 lines 39-42: modification request such as a teardown announcement).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Jia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for maintenance and monitoring of target wait time (TWT) sessions (see col. 2 lines 10-12 of Jia).
Consider claims 7 and 19, although Patil discloses sending an announcement frame inside the first BSS regarding the coordinated SP (see above), Patil does not specifically disclose to inform about a session being torn down.
Jia discloses to inform about a session being torn down (see col. 2 lines 39-42: modification request such as a teardown announcement).
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 Patil and combine it with the noted teachings of Jia. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for maintenance and monitoring of target wait time (TWT) sessions (see col. 2 lines 10-12 of Jia).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 9, 11-12, and 14 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
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
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