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
2. 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 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.
3. 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) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Claims 1, 12, 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (US 2024/0195552), hereinafter Yu, in view of Noh et al. (US 2022/0360387), hereinafter Noh.
Regarding claim 1, Yu discloses: (1) a communication performed by an AP to a STA, see fig.1 (equivalent to a method performed by a station (STA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system); (2) the beamformee (STA, see 0017) receives a NPDA frame S102-fig.10 from a beamformer (AP, see abstract), (equivalent to receiving a sensing null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame from an access point (AP)); (3) the AP first sends a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to notify an STA that needs to perform channel sounding. Then, after a short interframe space (SIFS), the AP sends a null data packet (NDP), see 0122 (equivalent to receiving an NDP from the AP); (4) a frame structure of a VHT NDPA-fig.4, see 0123 (equivalent to wherein the sensing NDPA frame includes a sounding dialog token field and a special STA info field including common information related to sensing measurement for a plurality of STAs, wherein the special STA information field is located after the sounding dialog token field); (4) the AID 11 field is in first 11 bits of every four octets in the first field (the extended common field or the special station information field) and each station information field. In other words, the AID 11 field (also referred to as the special AID 11 field) whose value is greater than 2007 is the first 11 bits of every four octets in the first field. Similarly, the association identifier 11 field whose value is less than or equal to 2007 is the first 11 bits of every four octets in the station information field, see 0179 (equivalent to an association identifier (AID) value of the special STA info field is set to a pre-determined value).
Yu, however, fails to specifically mention wherein, to identify the sensing NDPA frame, a value of a NDP announcement variant subfield of the sounding dialog token field is identically set to [[10]]a value for a ranging NDPA frame.
Noh from the same field of endeavor as Yu teaches the Sounding Dialog Token field in the NDP Announcement frame includes the NDP Announcement Variant subfield and the Sounding Dialog Token Number field. The setting of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field identifies the variant of the NDP Announcement frame as shown in Table 9. For example, B1 and B0 of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field are set to 0 to identify the frame as a VHT NDP Announcement frame; B1 and B0 of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field are set to 1 and 0 respectively to identify the frame as an HE NDP Announcement frame; B1 and B0 of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field are set to 0 and 1 respectively to identify the frame as an Ranging NDP Announcement frame; and B1 and B0 of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field are set to 1 to identify the frame as a an EHT NDP Announcement frame. The Sounding Dialog Token Number field in the Sounding Dialog Token field includes a value selected by the beamformer (e.g. AP) to identify the corresponding NDP Announcement frame. For example, in case that a value of the NDP Announcement Variant subfield in the Sounding Dialog Token field is set to 3 (EHT NDP Announcement frame), the Sounding Dialog Token Number field in the Sounding Dialog Token field includes a value selected by the beamformer (e.g. AP) to identify the EHT NDP Announcement frame, see 0204.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to employ a value of the NDP announcement variant subfield of the sounding dialog token field in a manner taught by Noh into the system of Yu. The suggestion/motivation for doing so would have been to provide NDP announcement frame to contain proper signaling to help the procedure in which the beamformed transmission being initiated with a NDPA frame by the beamformer, for the STA wherein the STA ID is included in NDPA frame.
Regarding claim 12, this claim has similar limitations as those of claim 1. Therefore, it is rejected under Yu-Noh for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 1. In Yu, the STA (beamformmee-fig. 17) includes a transceiver couples with a processor, and the processor is configured to perform the claimed steps.
Regarding claim 16, please see the rejection of claim 1. The rejection of claim 1 is for a method performed by a station in association with an AP, and it should be noted that a method performed by the AP in association with the STA can be performed in a similar manner. In Yu, the AP-fig.17, see 0241, includes at least a processor couples to a transceiver, and the processor is configured to perform the claimed steps.
Allowable subject matter
7. Claims 2-11 are rejected based on its dependency, would be allowable if rewritten or amended to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Saad et al. (US 12 634058); Noh et al. (US 12289265) are cited, and considered pertinent to the instant specification.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUC C HO whose telephone number is (571)272-3147. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8am-4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gary Mui can be reached on 571-270-1420 (Gary.mui@uspto.gov). The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DUC C HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
(Currently Amended) A method performed by a station (STA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method performed by a station (STA) comprising: receiving a sensing null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame from an access point (AP); and receiving an NDP from the AP; wherein the sensing NDPA frame includes a sounding dialog token field and a special STA info field including common information related to sensing measurement for a plurality of STAs, wherein the special STA information field is located after the sounding dialog token field, and wherein, to identify the sensing NDPA frame, a value of a NDP announcement variant subfield of the sounding dialog token field is identically set to [[10]]a value for a ranging NDPA frame and an association identifier (AID) value of the special STA info field is set to a pre-determined value, to identify the sensing NDPA frame.
information field is located after the sounding dialog token field
Prosecution Insights