18/726,746
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 Objections
Claims 1 and 2 are objected to because of the following informalities: The claims contain reference characters (AP, MAC, MSDU, MMPDU) which were not previously defined. Appropriate correction is required.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, 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.
The claims below are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kneckt et al (20220167256).
a. Referring to claims 1, 39 and 40:
Regarding claims 1, 39 and 40, Kneckt teaches a method for changing a value of at least one privacy parameter of a target station among an AP station managing a Basic Service Set, BSS, and a non-AP station of the BSS, the non-AP station and the AP station having a shared function to generate a new value of a privacy parameter, the method comprising at the non-AP station or at the AP station: obtaining a key and a parameter having a value varying over time, that are shared with the other station among the non-AP station and the AP station (Para 137 and 189…. group temporal key (GTK) for a link between a STA and AP, the link established with a link request having a MAC address (parameter) including a timing synchronization function (TSF) shared among the AP and STA); calculating a new value of the at least one privacy parameter by using the shared key and a current value of the shared parameter as inputs of the shared function (Para 137 and 9….. new MAC address for updating/changing the current MAC address); and replacing a value of the at least one privacy parameter by the calculated new value at a target time (Para 137…. replacing the MAC address with a new MAC address at a target time (immediate or delayed parameter change)).
a. Referring to claim 2:
Regarding claim 2, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the at least one privacy parameter includes one or more from: one or more Extended Unique Identifiers, EUIs, of the target station, one or more MAC addresses of the target station, a sequence number used by the target station to uniquely identify a new MSDU, A-MSDU, or MMPDU to be transmitted, a packet number used by the target station to uniquely identify a new frame to be transmitted, an association identifier, AID, of the target station to uniquely identify the target station within the BSS, a scrambler seed used by the target station to initialize a local scrambler scrambling transmit data and/or descrambling receive data, a beacon interval defining the time interval between two consecutive target beacon transmission times, TBTTs, a BSS color used as a numerical identifier of the BSS (Para 107 and 137…. MAC address).
a. Referring to claim 3:
Regarding claim 3, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 1, further comprising, at the station, communicating, with the other station, a request for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter at the target time (Para 137…. request (link request) to change parameter).
a. Referring to claim 4:
Regarding claim 4, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 3, wherein the request for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter is sent by the AP station to the non- AP station (Para 137… AP sends request to STA).
a. Referring to claim 5:
Regarding claim 5, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 1, wherein the target station is the AP station (Para 137… AP as target station).
a. Referring to claim 6:
Regarding claim 6, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 5, wherein the shared key is the Groupwise Temporal Key, GTK, of the BSS or a derivate thereof (Para 189… GTK).
a. Referring to claims 16 and 28:
Regarding claims 16 and 28, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 3, wherein the request for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter is sent by the non-AP station to the AP station (Para 137…. request from STA to AP).
a. Referring to claim 17:
Regarding claim 17, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 3, the request includes an indication relative to the target time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed (Para 137…. immediate or delayed parameter change).
a. Referring to claims 18 and 20:
Regarding claims 18 and 20, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 17 performed at the non-AP station, wherein the obtaining of the key shared with the AP station comprises, at the non-AP station: receiving, from the AP station, a request for obtaining the shared key (Para 8…. establishing security (shared key) for the link between STA and AP); upon reception of the request for obtaining the shared key, generating the shared key; and sending the generated shared key to the AP station (Para 8…. establishing security (shared key) for the link between STA and AP).
a. Referring to claims 19 and 21:
Regarding claims 19 and 21, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 18, wherein the shared key is generated pseudo-randomly (Para 118…. deriving shared key).
a. Referring to claim 22:
Regarding claim 22, Kneckt teaches the method of claim1, wherein the current value of the shared parameter is a current value of an, Extended Unique Identifier, EUI, of the target station (Para 107…. MAC address identifier).
a. Referring to claim 23:
Regarding claim 23, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the current value of the shared parameter is a current time value (Para 137… immediate/current time).
a. Referring to claim 25:
Regarding claim 25, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the request for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter is a beacon frame (Para 144 and 104… beacon frame).
a. Referring to claim 26:
Regarding claim 26, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 25, wherein the indication relative to the time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed is a counter included in the beacon frame, the counter indicating a number of Target Beacon Transmission Times, TBTTs (Para 167… validity interval indicating a number of TBTTs).
a. Referring to claims 29, 30 and 31:
Regarding claims 29, 30 and 31, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 17, wherein the indication relative to a time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed is included in the request for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter (Para 137…. time synchronization function (TSF) included in the sequence).
a. Referring to claim 32:
Regarding claim 32, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 29, wherein the indication relative to a time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed is a time value (Par 9 and 137….. time synchronization function).
a. Referring to claim 34:
Regarding claim 34, Kneckt teaches the method of claim 17, wherein capabilities for implementing a procedure for changing the value of the at least one privacy parameter have been exchanged during association between the non-AP station and the AP station (Para 105…. association between AP and STA).
a. Referring to claims 35 and 38:
Regarding claims 35 and 38, Kneckt teaches the method of Claim 1, further comprising, at the non-AP station or at the AP station, determining a value representing the target time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed by using the shared function with inputs comprising the current value of the shared parameter (Para 9 and 137…. timing synchronization function).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-15, 24, 27, 33, 36 and 37 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
with respect to claims 7-13, the primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter are the limitations of the BSS Privacy Enhancement client changing a value of a privacy parameter by using the shared function and signaling to each targeted BPE Client to change the value of at least one privacy parameter of the AP station, and the value of at least one privacy parameter of the targeted BPE Client.
With respect to claims 14, 15, 36, 37, the primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter are the limitations of determining a new value of a first privacy parameter of the target station from a first subset of bits among the plurality of bits; and determining a new value of a second and distinct privacy parameter of the target station from a second subset of bits among the plurality of bits.
With respect to claim 24, the primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter is the limitation of replacing the value of the at least one privacy parameter of the non-AP station in the registry by a calculated new value.
With respect to claim 27, the primary reason for indicating allowable subject matter is the limitation of the time at which the value of the at least one privacy parameter is to be changed is a time at which the beacon frame with a value of the counter equal to zero is sent from the AP station and received by the non-AP station.
Conclusion
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/IZUNNA OKEKE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2497