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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-5, 7-10, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sadeghi et al. (US-20200359248-A1), hereinafter “Sadeghi”.
Claims 1, 10 and 12:
Regarding claim 1, Sadeghi teaches, a method performed by a first station (STA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system (Clm.1, “processing circuitry is to configure the wireless communication device to perform a WLAN sensing protocol within a basic service set (BSS)”), the method comprising:
transmitting, to the second STA, a request frame ([0031] As illustrated in FIG. 8, in some embodiments the negotiation phase 206 may include the sensing initiator sending a sensing request frame 802 to the sensing responder.”) related to an establishment of a sensing measurement session (Clm.1, “wherein during the measurement phase, the one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing transmitters are configured to transmit sensing packets for sensing measurements by one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing receivers;”),
Though Sadeghi does not expressly teach, the request frame including information related to a role of a second STA and receiving a response frame in response to the request frame, from the second STA, wherein the information related to the role of the second STA indicates a sensing transmitter role for the second STA, indicates a sensing receiver role for the second STA the request frame including information related to a role of a second STA, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to come up with the claim based on the disclosures regarding role in the following:
role as sensing receiver as discussed above in Clm.1 of Sadeghi;
(Clm.4) “during the discovery phase, the STA1 sends a request to the AP STA to initiate a sensing service, the STA1 indicates its availability as the sensing receiver, and the STA1 receives identities of the STA2s that are available as the sensing transmitters”; and
[0029] “During the teardown phase 212, roles of the STAs of the BSS for performing the WLAN sensing protocol are ended. In some embodiments, the teardown phase 212 may comprise an exchange of messages indicating that the sensing measurements are no longer needed and the STAs may be stripped of their role designation.”
A person of ordinary skill would be motivated to come up with the claimed invention for designation of proper roles for the nodes for the measurement session as disclosed in Sadeghi in Clm.1, “wherein during the measurement phase, the one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing transmitters are configured to transmit sensing packets for sensing measurements by one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing receivers”.
receiving a response frame in response to the request frame, from the second STA, wherein the information related to the role of the second STA indicates a sensing transmitter role for the second STA, indicates a sensing receiver role for the second STA (during the discovery phase, the STA1 sends a request to the AP STA to initiate a sensing service, the STA1 indicates its availability as the sensing receiver, and the STA1 receives identities of the STA2s that are available as the sensing transmitters”), or indicates both the sensing transmitter role and the sensing receiver role for the second STA.
Claim 10 is for an apparatus implementing method of claim 1. The claim is a change in category with respect to claim 1. Existence of a transceiver and processor is implied. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claim 1.
Claim 12 is for an apparatus performing method complementary to method of claim 1. Claim elements (complimentary elements) are discussed above in claim 1. Claim is rejected based on rejection of claims 1 and 10.
Regarding claim 2, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein:
the request frame further includes measurement session identification information, the measurement session identification information identifies at least one parameter including the information related to the role of the second STA to be used in a corresponding sensing measurement transmission and reception (AP STA (102) receives identities of the STA2s (106) that are available as sensing transmitters (see paragraph [0025]), Fig.4 and Fig.11.).
Regarding claim 3, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein: the response frame includes information related to the role of the second STA (discussed above in claim 1 regarding role in the response during the negotiation phase).
Regarding claim 4, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
Regarding the claim, wherein: the information related to the role of the second STA is indicated through 2 bits, though Sadeghi does not teach it, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to come up with the claim based on the fact that the role may be either a transmitter, a receiver, both transmitter and receiver or none of these. The four available options may be represented by 2 bits.
Regarding claim 5, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein based on the information related to the role of the second STA indicating the sensing receiver role for the second STA, or indicating both the sensing transmitter role and the sensing receiver role for the second STA: sensing measurement reporting related information is included in at least one of the request frame or the response frame ([0021] “during the measurement phase 208, the one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing transmitters are configured to transmit sensing packets for sensing measurements by one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing receivers.”; the sensing packets may be considered as the request frame).
Regarding claim 7, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein: the request frame is a sensing measurement request frame, the response frame is a sensing measurement response frame ([0021] “during the reporting phase 210, the sensing measurements are provided to the sensing initiator”; measurements are provided in the response frame)
Regarding claim 8, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above).
The claim, wherein: at least one of the request frame or the response frame has an action frame format, is not disclosed by Sadeghi.
Though not disclosed by Sadeghi, action frames are a type of management frame defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard, which governs wireless local area networks (WLANs). They are used to convey information and instructions for various actions that need to be taken by devices in the network. In the current context the one action type may be the measurement request or response frame as discussed above in claims 6 and 7.
It would have been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to come up with the claim based on provision in the standard for defining action frame and make use of it for sensing measurement purpose in WLAN.
Regarding claim 9, Sadeghi teaches the method of claim 1 (discussed above), wherein: the response frame includes at least one response frame transmitted by at least one STA including the second STA, the at least one response frame is transmitted simultaneously by the at least one STA, or the at least one response frame is transmitted individually by the at least one STA ([0032] “The sensing responder(s) may be a HE STA or a DMG STA that agrees to participate in a sensing session by transmitting a sensing response frame 804 in response to the reception of a sensing request frame 802. Sensing transmitter(s) may be a subset of the group formed by the initiator and responder(s ), plus possibly legacy STAs, that transmit at each measurement event(s) of a sensing session. Sensing receiver(s) may be a subset of the group formed by the initiator and responder(s) that receive at each measurement event(s) of a sensing session.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 2023/0171850 A1 teaches WLAN sensing;
US 2021/0314732 A1 teaches multi-device wireless sensing; and
Definitions and scenarios of the WLAN sensing - follow ups, IEEE 802.11-21/0147r2 (Year: 2021).
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/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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