DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is a response to an application filed on March 7, 2024. Claims 1-10 are currently pending and ready for examination.
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 information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 7, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. §102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention
Claims 1-3 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen (US Published Patent Application No. US 2020/0260322).
Regarding claim 1, Chen discloses a method of transmitting and receiving, by a first device (See, e.g., Abstract, a “master wireless communications device”), data in a short-range wireless communication system (See, Abstract; and ¶[0029], “there is provided a method;” ¶[0033], “the master and slave wireless communications devices communicate via a short-range wireless communications protocol low-energy connected isochronous stream (CIS);” and ¶[0034], “the short-range wireless communications protocol is Bluetooth®.”), the method comprising:
forming, with a second device (See, e.g., Abstract, a “slave wireless communications device”), a connection (See, Fig. 4, the ACL connection (link) carrying a PDU labeled “EventCount in LL_CIS_IND;” ¶[0009], “an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection”; and ¶[0045], “The isochronous connection exists while the ACL connection used to establish the CIS exists.”) related to a first channel (The channel mapped to the ACL transport, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels”.) for transmitting and receiving first data (See, e.g., “EventCount in LL_CIS_IND;” and ¶[0047], “the eventCount parameters sent in the LL_CIS_PDU sent in the ACL connection as shown in FIG. 4.” In a master-slave connection under the Bluetooth® protocol, when the master transmits a packet (PDU), the slave device must respond by sending an acknowledgement packet, i.e., Ack or Nack. Thus, the master transmits and receives data from the slave. That is, the ACL connection is bi-directional. See, Fig. 3; and ¶[0009], “transmission of a packet from the master to the slave and the response packet from the slave wireless communications device to the master wireless communications device”. See, also, Fig. 6; ¶[0011]; and ¶[0003], “LE employs two multiple access schemes: Frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA)…. A TDMA based polling scheme is used in which one device transmits a packet at a predetermined time and a corresponding device responds with a packet after a predetermined interval.”);
forming, with the second device (i.e., the slave wireless communications device”), a connection (See, e.g., Fig. 4, the “CIS” connection carrying data packet exchange between “M” and “S;” and ¶[0009], “FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the start of a CIS from an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection when directed by a Host;” and ¶[0038], “a master wireless communications device can establish an isochronous connection….An isochronous connection is used to transfer isochronous data between the master wireless communications device and a slave wireless communications device using an isochronous connection logical transport referred to as a Connected Isochronous Stream (CIS)…. the RF channel used for a subevent is marked as ISO Ch;” and ¶[0039], “the timing of the first packet is provided in the Link Layer message sent by the master wireless communications device during the CIS establishment phase in the associated ACL connection.”) related to a second channel (The channel to which the CIS transport is mapped, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels….The LE isochronous physical channel can use any LE PHY.”) for transmitting and receiving second data different from the first data (See, e.g., Fig. 3, in the “Subevent (0),” two PDUs are shown, one from the master to the slave, the other from the slave to the master; ¶[0038], “An isochronous connection is used to transfer isochronous data between the master wireless communications device and a slave wireless communications device using an isochronous connection logical transport referred to as a Connected Isochronous Stream (CIS);” ¶[0040] “isochronous connections for transferring streams of isochronous data;” and, compare, ¶[0047], “the eventCount parameters sent in the LL_CIS_PDU sent in the ACL connection as shown in FIG. 4.” Thus, Chen discloses that the CIS connection or link is used to transmit an isochronous stream, e.g., audio stream, while the ACL connection is used to carry control message type packets.);
transmitting and receiving the first data (See, Fig. 4, “LL_CIS_IND” on the ACL connection) with the second device (i.e., the slave wireless communications device”) on the first channel (The channel mapped to the ACL transport, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels”.) based on a first time interval (See, Fig. 4, “Conn_Interval”) in which the first data is transmitted and received on the first channel (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval”.); and
transmitting and receiving the second data (i.e., connected isochronous stream (CIS) data packets) with the second device (See, Fig. 3, showing exchange of three PDUs from the master to the slave and three responsive PDUs from the slave) on the second channel (The channel to which the CIS transport is mapped, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels….The LE isochronous physical channel can use any LE PHY.”) based on a second time interval (See, Fig. 4, “ISO Interval;” ¶[0047], “The Link Layer in the Connection state … only transmits CIS PDUs in CIS events…consist of CIS subevents in which the master and slave transfer CIS PDUs. Each CIS event normally contains at least one CIS PDU sent by the master. ….The start of a CIS event is called a CIS anchor point… spaced regularly with an interval ISO_Interval”) in which the second data is transmitted and received on the second channel (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval”.),
wherein a data transmission and reception on the first channel (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval”.) and a data transmission and reception on the second channel (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval”.) are performed based on a transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval;” and ¶[0009], FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the start of a CIS from an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection”.) and a transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval;” and ¶[0008], FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of an example CIS with four subevents used for transmission of a packet from the master to the slave and the response packet from the slave wireless communications device to the master wireless communications device.”).
Regarding claim 2/1, Chen discloses a method comprising all elements recited in claim 1 as discussed above.
Chen further discloses that forming the connection related to the second channel (See, the above discussion of claim 1) comprises
transmitting, to the second device, information (See, ¶[0035], the master wireless communications device and the slave wireless communications …. generate a Tx data structure for each of a plurality of anchor points; generate a Rx data structure for each of the plurality of anchor points; add each Tx data structure to the Tx packet list, and adding each Rx data structure to the Rx packet list”) on a time offset (See, Figs. 3 and 4, “CIS Offset”) from a start time of the first time interval (See, Fig,4, the ACL packet labeled “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning of the “Conn_Interval,” i.e., the claimed first time interval.) to a start time of the second time interval (See, Fig. 4, “CIS Anchor Point” at the beginning of the “ISO Interval,” i.e., the claimed second time interval.), and
wherein the second time interval is configured based on the information on the time offset (See, Fig. 4, the timing of the starting “CIS Anchor Point,” i.e., the beginning of the claimed second time interval, being defined to be at a time after the elapse of the “CIS Offset” from the beginning of the “Conn_Interval”.).
Regarding claim 3/2, Chen discloses a method comprising all elements recited in claim 2 as discussed above.
Chen further discloses that, based on the information on the time offset, the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval is configured not to overlap the transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval (See, e.g., Fig. 4, as the “ISO Interval,” i.e., the claimed second time interval, starts “CIS Offset” after the start of the “Conn_Interval,” i.e., the claimed first time interval, and is contained entirely within the “Conn_Interval,” and, as at least in this example of Fig. 4 shows only two ACL packets, both of which occur outside the “ISO Interval,” the example of Fig. 4 of Chen discloses “no overlap” between the ACL packets and the CIS packets.).
Regarding claim 10, Chen discloses a first device (See, e.g., Abstract, a “master wireless communications device”) transmitting and receiving data in a short-range wireless communication system (See, Abstract; and ¶[0029], “there is provided a method;” ¶[0033], “the master and slave wireless communications devices communicate via a short-range wireless communications protocol low-energy connected isochronous stream (CIS);” and ¶[0034], “the short-range wireless communications protocol is Bluetooth®.”), the first device comprising:
a transmitter configured to transmit a radio signal (See, ¶[0001] The present disclosure relates more particularly, for flushing packets in a Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) connected isochronous stream (CIS); ¶[0002], “The low energy (LE) system employs a frequency hopping transceiver …. utilizes a shaped, binary frequency modulation, to minimize transceiver complexity.”);
a receiver configured to receive the1 radio signal (See, above, “transceiver,” i.e., transmitter/receiver.);
at least one processor (See, ¶[0035], “one or more processors”.); and
at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one computer memory is configured to store instructions performing operations based on being executed by the at least one processor (See, ¶[0035], “In accordance with a further embodiment, there is provided a system including … one or more processors coupled to non-transitory memory storing machine executable program instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the master wireless communications device and the slave wireless communications devices to”.), wherein the operations comprise:
forming, with a second device (See, e.g., Abstract, a “slave wireless communications device”), a connection (See, Fig. 4, the ACL connection (link) carrying a PDU labeled “EventCount in LL_CIS_IND;” ¶[0009], “an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection”; and ¶[0045], “The isochronous connection exists while the ACL connection used to establish the CIS exists.”) related to a first channel (The channel mapped to the ACL transport, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels”.) for transmitting and receiving first data (See, e.g., “EventCount in LL_CIS_IND;” and ¶[0047], “the eventCount parameters sent in the LL_CIS_PDU sent in the ACL connection as shown in FIG. 4.” In a master-slave connection under the Bluetooth® protocol, when the master transmits a packet (PDU), the slave device must respond by sending an acknowledgement packet, i.e., Ack or Nack. Thus, the master transmits and receives data from the slave. That is, the ACL connection is bi-directional. See, Fig. 3; and ¶[0009], “transmission of a packet from the master to the slave and the response packet from the slave wireless communications device to the master wireless communications device”. See, also, Fig. 6; ¶[0011]; and ¶[0003], “LE employs two multiple access schemes: Frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and time division multiple access (TDMA)…. A TDMA based polling scheme is used in which one device transmits a packet at a predetermined time and a corresponding device responds with a packet after a predetermined interval.”);
forming, with the second device (i.e., the slave wireless communications device”), a connection (See, e.g., Fig. 4, the “CIS” connection carrying data packet exchange between “M” and “S;” and ¶[0009], “FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the start of a CIS from an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection when directed by a Host;” and ¶[0038], “a master wireless communications device can establish an isochronous connection….An isochronous connection is used to transfer isochronous data between the master wireless communications device and a slave wireless communications device using an isochronous connection logical transport referred to as a Connected Isochronous Stream (CIS)…. the RF channel used for a subevent is marked as ISO Ch;” and ¶[0039], “the timing of the first packet is provided in the Link Layer message sent by the master wireless communications device during the CIS establishment phase in the associated ACL connection.”) related to a second channel (The channel to which the CIS transport is mapped, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels….The LE isochronous physical channel can use any LE PHY.”) for transmitting and receiving second data different from the first data (See, e.g., Fig. 3, in the “Subevent (0),” two PDUs are shown, one from the master to the slave, the other from the slave to the master; ¶[0038], “An isochronous connection is used to transfer isochronous data between the master wireless communications device and a slave wireless communications device using an isochronous connection logical transport referred to as a Connected Isochronous Stream (CIS);” ¶[0040] “isochronous connections for transferring streams of isochronous data;” and, compare, ¶[0047], “the eventCount parameters sent in the LL_CIS_PDU sent in the ACL connection as shown in FIG. 4.” Thus, Chen discloses that the CIS connection or link is used to transmit an isochronous stream, e.g., audio stream, while the ACL connection is used to carry control message type packets.);
transmitting and receiving the first data (See, Fig. 4, “LL_CIS_IND” on the ACL connection) with the second device (i.e., the slave wireless communications device”) on the first channel (The channel mapped to the ACL transport, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels”.) based on a first time interval (See, Fig. 4, “Conn_Interval”) in which the first data is transmitted and received on the first channel (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval”.); and
transmitting and receiving the second data (i.e., connected isochronous stream (CIS) data packets) with the second device (See, Fig. 3, showing exchange of three PDUs from the master to the slave and three responsive PDUs from the slave) on the second channel (The channel to which the CIS transport is mapped, see, ¶[0039], “the channel map that indicates the set of PHY channels….The LE isochronous physical channel can use any LE PHY.”) based on a second time interval (See, Fig. 4, “ISO Interval;” ¶[0047], “The Link Layer in the Connection state … only transmits CIS PDUs in CIS events…consist of CIS subevents in which the master and slave transfer CIS PDUs. Each CIS event normally contains at least one CIS PDU sent by the master. ….The start of a CIS event is called a CIS anchor point… spaced regularly with an interval ISO_Interval”) in which the second data is transmitted and received on the second channel (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval”.),
wherein a data transmission and reception on the first channel (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval”.) and a data transmission and reception on the second channel (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval”.) are performed based on a transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval (See, Fig. 4, the “LL_CIS_IND” at the beginning and another ACL packet at the end of the “Conn_Interval;” and ¶[0009], FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating the start of a CIS from an Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) connection”.) and a transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval (See, Fig. 5; ¶[0048], “the CIS event starts at a CIS anchor point and ends at the end of the last transmission from the slave in the last subevent in an isochronous interval;” and ¶[0008], FIG. 3 is a timing diagram of an example CIS with four subevents used for transmission of a packet from the master to the slave and the response packet from the slave wireless communications device to the master wireless communications device.”).
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 4-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Ignatchenko (US Published Patent Application No. US 2018/0048567).
Regarding claim 4/3, Chen teaches a method comprising all elements recited in claim 3 as discussed above.
Chen further teaches that a length of the first time interval is set to a multiple of the second time interval (See, ¶[0047], “The ISO_Interval,” i.e., the claimed second time interval, “is a multiple of 1.25 ms”. This is significant, as a person having an ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) would recognize the 1,25 ms corresponds to two Bluetooth time slots, one time slot size being 625 uS, see, e.g., Ignatchenko discussed below. The two time slots correspond to the minimum time duration, during which the exchange of two packets between the master and the slave, a time slot for a packet from each of the master and the slave, can take place. As can be seen from Fig. 4 of Chen, the “Conn_Interval,” i.e., the claimed first time interval, is longer than the “ISO Interval,” i.e., the claimed first time interval, and is thus some multiple of the shorter 1.25 mS, i.e., a multiple of a number greater than 1. See, ¶[0045], “The isochronous connection exists while the ACL connection used to establish the CIS exists.” Further, it should be noted that; 1) the Applicant perhaps intended an “integer multiple,’ in which case the Applicant should and could have so recited in the claims; and 2) even if the claim term “multiple’ is construed to mean an “integer multiple,” as discussed above, since the minimum length of the “ISO Interval” corresponds to two Bluetooth time slots, the integer multiple lengths would encompass all time durations of even number of time slots. In view of the “polling” nature of the packet exchange mechanism employed in Bluetooth protocol, i.e., packets are sent in pairs of data transmission packet and a response packet, the “Conn_Interval” spanning an even number of time slots appear to be a technical necessity.).
Chen, while suggesting a possible scheduling conflict between an ACL packet and a CIS packet (See, ¶[0047], “The start of CIS events are spaced regularly with an interval ISO_Interval and don't overlap;” and “Each CIS event normally contains at least one CIS PDU sent by the master. The master can, however, completely fail to transmit in a CIS event due to scheduling conflicts”. That is, the CIS packets are scheduled for transmission without the possibility of conflicts with respect to each other, and when there are only two connected links, i.e., the ACL link and the CIS link, the only possible scheduling conflict is between an ACL packet and a CIS packet. Thus, Chen suggests the possibility of an ACL packet transmission during an ISO interval.), however, fails to teach explicitly that the data transmission and reception on the first channel is performed between a time, at which the transmission and reception of the second data on the second channel in the second time interval is completed, and an end time of the second time interval.
Ignatchenko teaches an analogous field of art, i.e., the latency reduction in Bluetooth communications, see, Ignatchenko at ¶[0064]), and teaches that the data transmission and reception on the first channel is performed between a time, at which the transmission and reception of the second data on the second channel in the second time interval is completed, and an end time of the second time interval (See, Ignatchenko at ¶[0065], “ACL packets may be sent by the master at any time.” This statement of a technical truism relating to the asynchronous nature of the ACL packet transmissions teaches that the ACL packet transmission, i.e., the claimed data transmission and reception on the first channel, can occur at any time during the ACL “Conn_Interval,” which is longer that the CIS connection period, see, Chen at ¶[0045], “The isochronous connection exists while the ACL connection used to establish the CIS exists.” Accordingly, an ACL packet transmission, i.e., the claimed data transmission and reception on the first channel, can occur at any time, including between a time, at which the transmission and reception of the second data on the second channel in the second time interval is completed, and an end time of the second time interval. See, also, ¶[0065], “one Bluetooth time slot (approximately 625 us).”).
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 above teachings of Chen to incorporate the above teaching of Ignatchenko, i.e., the technical fact that the ACL packet transmission is asynchronous, as such teaching would have been recognized by a person having an ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) as a technical factual nature of the asynchronous packet exchange. See, e.g., MPEP §2144.I.
Regarding claim 5/2, Chen teaches a method comprising all elements recited in claim 2 as discussed above.
Chen, while suggesting a possible scheduling conflict between an ACL packet and a CIS packet (See, ¶[0047], “The start of CIS events are spaced regularly with an interval ISO_Interval and don't overlap;” and “Each CIS event normally contains at least one CIS PDU sent by the master. The master can, however, completely fail to transmit in a CIS event due to scheduling conflicts”. That is, the CIS packets are scheduled for transmission without the possibility of conflicts with respect to each other, and when there are only two connected links, i.e., the ACL link and the CIS link, the only possible scheduling conflict is between an ACL packet and a CIS packet. Thus, Chen suggests the possibility of a scheduling conflict between ACL packet transmission and a CIS packet transmission.), however, fails to teach explicitly that, based on the information on the time offset, the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval and the transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval are configured to overlap each other at least once.
Ignatchenko teaches an analogous field of art, i.e., the latency reduction in Bluetooth communications, see, Ignatchenko at ¶[0064]), and teaches that, based on the information on the time offset, the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval and the transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval are configured to overlap each other at least once (See, Ignatchenko at ¶[0065], “ACL packets may be sent by the master at any time.” This statement of a technical truism relating to the asynchronous nature of the ACL packet transmissions teaches that the ACL packet transmission, i.e., the claimed data transmission and reception on the first channel, can occur at any time during the ACL “Conn_Interval,” which is longer that the CIS connection period, see, Chen at ¶[0045], “The isochronous connection exists while the ACL connection used to establish the CIS exists.” Accordingly, an ACL packet transmission, i.e., the claimed data transmission and reception on the first channel, can occur at any time, including at a point in time a CIS packet transmission is scheduled, i.e., the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval and the transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval are configured to overlap each other.).
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 above teachings of Chen to incorporate the above teaching of Ignatchenko, i.e., the technical fact that the ACL packet transmission is asynchronous, as such teaching would have been recognized by a person having an ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) as a technical factual nature of the asynchronous packet exchange. See, e.g., MPEP §2144.I.
Regarding claim 6/5, Chen in view of Ignatchenko teach a method comprising all elements recited in claim 5 as discussed above.
Chen further teaches that at least one transmission and reception of the second data in the second time interval, that overlaps the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval, is dropped, and wherein at least one transmission and reception of the first data in the first time interval, that overlaps the transmission and reception timing of the second data in the second time interval, is performed (See, ¶[0047], “The start of CIS events are spaced regularly with an interval ISO_Interval and don't overlap;” and “Each CIS event normally contains at least one CIS PDU sent by the master. The master can, however, completely fail to transmit in a CIS event due to scheduling conflicts”. That is, the CIS packets are scheduled for transmission without the possibility of conflicts with respect to each other, and when there are only two connected links, i.e., the ACL link and the CIS link, the only possible scheduling conflict is between an ACL packet and a CIS packet. Thus, Chen suggests the possibility of a scheduling conflict, i.e., an overlap, between the scheduling of an ACL packet transmission/reception and the scheduling of a CIS packet transmission/reception. Further, Chen teaches that, when such scheduling conflict occurs, the “master can, however, completely fail to transmit in a CIS event,” i.e., the packet is “dropped”. The fact that the CIS packet is dropped indicates that the conflict is resolved in favor of the ACL packet, i.e., the transmission/reception of the ACL packets are performed.).
Regarding claim 7/6, Chen in view of Ignatchenko teach a method comprising all elements recited in claim 6 as discussed above.
Chen further teaches that the dropped at least one transmission and reception of the second data in the second time interval, that overlaps the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval, is retransmitted in at least one next second time interval of the second time interval, that overlaps the transmission and reception timing of the first data in the first time interval (See, ¶[0044], “A CIS consists of one or more transmission periods denoted as subevents that occur every isochronous interval. To improve the reliability, the isochronous data packets can be re-transmitted by allocating more subevents than the number of packets scheduled to be transmitted in each interval;” and ¶[0046], “The master wireless communications device and the slave wireless communications device may use the subsequent subevents for transmission or retransmission of packets.”).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Young et al. (US Published Patent Application No. US 2022/0103607) (hereinafter " Young”).
Regarding claim 8/1, Chen teaches a method comprising all elements recited in claim 1 as discussed above.
Chen, however, fails to explicitly teach that the first device is a central device, wherein the second device is a peripheral device, and wherein the second data is data generated based on a user input of the second device.
Young teaches an analogous field of art, i.e., transmission/reception of audio stream via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Connected Isochronous Stream(CIS), see, e.g., ¶[0004], “Bluetooth Low-Energy audio topologies enabled by the 5.2 Core Specification (referred to herein as “LE Audio”);” and ¶[0005], “LE Audio enables unicast wireless topologies (referred to as “connected isochronous streams”)”), and teaches that the first device is a central device (an audio “source device,” see, e.g., ¶[0080], “a plurality of source devices (not shown) capable of simultaneously broadcasting a respective plurality of isochronous data streams 164A-164C.”), wherein the second device is a peripheral device (See, Figs. 3 and 5, #108; and ¶[0080], “peripheral device 108, can take the form of a mobile communication device, e.g., a smart phone”.), and wherein the second data (an isochronous audio, see, ¶[0080], “each isochronous data stream 164A-164C can include audio data”) is data generated based on a user input of the second device (See, e.g., ¶[0072], “peripheral user input 160 can operate to cycle through available isochronous data streams, e.g., data streams of the plurality of isochronous data streams 164A-164C;” and ¶[0046], “in response to receiving the first user input the first device is configured to switch between the first isochronous data stream and the second isochronous data stream such that the first audio playback cycles through association with the first isochronous data stream and the second isochronous data stream.”).
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 above teachings of Chen to incorporate the above teaching of Young, i.e., an assignment of a managing device role to a peripheral device for coordinating the playback of audio streams from multiple sources, in order to effectively manage multiple audio streams available from multiple sources. (See, e.g., Young, Abstract).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Chen in view of Young and in further view of Xu (US Published Patent Application No. US 2023/0276515).
Regarding claim 9/8, Chen in view of Young teach a method comprising al elements recited in claim 8 as discussed above.
Chen further teaches that the first data is null data (See, ¶[0046], “The packet transmitted by the master wireless communications device or the slave wireless communications device is a CIS Data PDU or Null PDU”).
Chen in view of Young, however, fails to teach explicitly that the second data is data requiring a low delay.
Xu teaches an analogous filed of art, i.e., a transmission/reception of audio stream using CIS link of the Bluetooth Low Energy device (See, e.g., ¶[0032] If the audio receiving device supports the ultra-low latency wireless audio transmission, the audio transmitting device establishes the connected isochronous stream link based on the high-speed physical layer with the audio receiving device through the BLE asynchronous connection-oriented link.”), and teaches that the second data is data requiring a low delay (See, ¶[0020], “the audio performance requirements such as high real-time and ultra-low latency.”).
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 above teachings of Chen in view of Young to incorporate the above teaching of Xu, i.e., the technical fact that audio streaming requires low latency, as such teaching would have been recognized by a person having an ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) as a technical factual nature of the audio streaming. See, e.g., MPEP §2144.I.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
1) Zhu (US Published Patent Application No. US2022/0039041) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Figs. 7, 8, 9A; and the description thereof;
2) Redding et al. (US Published Patent Application No. US2020/0336520) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Fig. 10; and the description thereof;
3) Xu (US Published Patent Application No. US2022/0418023) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Figs. 6 and 7; and the description thereof;
4) Linsky et al. (US Published Patent Application No. US2021/0376884) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Figs. 4A & 5A (Establish ACL & CIS between two devices); and the description thereof; and
5) Young et al. US (US Published Patent Application No. US 2021/0306103) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Fig. 5; and the description thereof;
6) Abildgren et al. US (US Published Patent Application No. US 2023/0224078) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Fig. 4A; and the description thereof;
7) Bhalla et al. US (US Published Patent Application No. US 2019/0045304) teaches various aspects of the claimed invention. See, e.g., Figs. 6, 7 and 8A; and the description thereof; and
8) Palin et al. US (US Patent No. US 7,454,171) teaches the “sniff anchor” and null packet polling.
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/K.S.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2418 August 3, 2026
/Moo Jeong/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2418
1 The strictest reading of the claim recitation requires a non-sensical scenario where a transmission by a transmitter of a device being for the reception by a receiver of the same device. For the purpose of the examination, this limitation “the radio signal” is construed to mean the same type of signal, i.e., a RF signal.
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