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.
Claims 1, 5-6, 14, 19-21, 25-26, 34, 38-40, 44-45, 53, 58-60, 64-65, 73 and 77-78 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1).
Regarding claim 1,
CARIOU discloses “A first wireless communication device, comprising: a processing system that includes processor circuitry and memory circuitry that stores code, the processing system configured to cause the first wireless communication device to” (See Fig. 5): “transmit, via a first radio frequency band, one or more indications of a medium time interval for a second radio frequency band that is different than the first radio frequency band” (See Fig. 4, See Page 12, lines 15-23 At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1 and/or 20 the efficient 60 GHz scheduling device 619 of FIG. 6) may generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. At block 404, the device may cause to send the TWT setup frame to a responder device. At block 408, the device may allocate the one or more service periods on the second link, wherein the second link operates on a 60 GHz band. See Page 28, line 29, wherein the first link operates on a sub 7 GHz band), “the one or more indications comprising one or more of: an indication of one or more shared service periods for communication on the second radio frequency band with a first set of two or more second wireless communication devices” (See Page 12, lines 16-18, generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. See Page 9, lines 12-14, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. For example, an AP may setup a broadcast TWT SP where it communicates with multiple associated STAs within the SP) “via time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, or spatial division multiplexing” (See Page 21, lines 4-8, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation); “and communicate, via the second radio frequency band and in accordance with the medium time interval, with a second wireless communication device of the first set of two or more second wireless communication devices, the second set of one or more second wireless communication devices, or the third set of one or more second wireless communication devices” (See Page 9, lines 12-16, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both).
CARIOU does not explicitly disclose that the service periods are dedicated service periods.
However, NEZOU discloses “dedicated service periods” (See [0022] These embodiments propose to use a service period dedicated for the transmission of a given type of traffic, for example traffic relating to LLRS, also referred to as low latency traffic or latency sensitive traffic or time sensitive traffic).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU with the teachings of NEZOU, to use dedicated service periods, and the motivation to do so would have been to provide reserved transmission opportunities for latency-sensitive traffic and thereby improve communication efficiency and fairness (NEZOU [0022]).
Regarding claim 5,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein, to transmit the one or more indications of the medium time interval, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to transmit an indication of one or more parameters associated with the one or more shared dedicated service periods, the one or more parameters comprising an allocation of users” (See CARIOU, Page 11, lines 31-32, the AP may include an element signaling which STAs are allocated to a set of SPs and whether for each slot they are the initiator or responder).
Regarding claim 6,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein, to transmit the one or more indications of the medium time interval, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to transmit an indication of an individual dedicated service period for communication with only the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device” (See CARIOU, Page 9, lines 15-16, a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both).
Regarding claim 14,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to: communicate, with the second wireless communication device and via the first radio frequency band, a request to use a first duration of the one or more durations on the second radio frequency band for communication with the second wireless communication device” (See CARIOU Fig. 3, (TWT Request from STA 1), See Page 8, lines 16-17, FIG. 3 shows the example of a STA negotiating an individual TWT SP on a 60 GHz link where the SP is divided into multiple slots. See Page 12, lines 16-19, the device may generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. At block 404, the device may cause to send the TWT setup frame to a responder device. See Page 29, line 1, the TWT set up frame may be a TWT request frame); “and communicate, with the second wireless communication device via the first radio frequency band and in association with communication of the request, a response that indicates an intention to use the second radio frequency band for the first duration for communication with the second wireless communication device” (See CARIOU Fig. 3, (TWT Response), See Page 12, lines 20-21, At block 406, the device may identify a TWT response frame received from the responder device on the first link).
Regarding claim 21,
CARIOU discloses “A first wireless communication device, comprising: a processing system that includes processor circuitry and memory circuitry that stores code, the processing system configured to cause the first wireless communication device to” (See Fig. 5): “receive, via a first radio frequency band and from a second wireless communication device, one or more indications of a medium time interval for a second radio frequency band that is different than the second radio frequency band” (See Fig. 4, See Page 12, lines 15-23 At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1 and/or 20 the efficient 60 GHz scheduling device 619 of FIG. 6) may generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. At block 404, the device may cause to send the TWT setup frame to a responder device. At block 408, the device may allocate the one or more service periods on the second link, wherein the second link operates on a 60 GHz band. See Page 28, line 29, wherein the first link operates on a sub 7 GHz band), “the one or more indications comprising one or more of: an indication of one or more shared service periods for communication on the second radio frequency band with a first set of two or more first wireless communication devices, the first set of two or more first wireless communication devices comprising the first wireless communication device” (See Page 12, lines 16-18, generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. See Page 9, lines 12-14, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. For example, an AP may setup a broadcast TWT SP where it communicates with multiple associated STAs within the SP) “via time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, or spatial division multiplexing” (See Page 21, lines 4-8, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation); “and communicate, via the second radio frequency band and in accordance with the medium time interval, with the second wireless communication device” (See Page 9, lines 12-16, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both).
CARIOU does not explicitly disclose that the service periods are dedicated service periods.
However, NEZOU discloses “dedicated service periods” (See [0022] These embodiments propose to use a service period dedicated for the transmission of a given type of traffic, for example traffic relating to LLRS, also referred to as low latency traffic or latency sensitive traffic or time sensitive traffic).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU with the teachings of NEZOU, to use dedicated service periods, and the motivation to do so would have been to provide reserved transmission opportunities for latency-sensitive traffic and thereby improve communication efficiency and fairness (NEZOU [0022]).
Regarding claim 25, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 5.
Regarding claim 26, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 6.
Regarding claim 34, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 14.
Regarding claim 38,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein, to communicate with the second wireless communication device, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to communicate with the second wireless communication device over a first shared dedicated service period of the one or more shared dedicated service periods via frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, or spatial division multiplexing” (See CARIOU Page 9, lines 12-16, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both. See CARIOU Page 21, lines 4-8, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation);
Regarding claim 40,
CARIOIU discloses “A method for wireless communication performed by a first wireless communication device, comprising: transmitting, via a first radio frequency band, one or more indications of a medium time interval for a second radio frequency band that is different than the first radio frequency band” (See Fig. 4, See Page 12, lines 15-23 At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1 and/or 20 the efficient 60 GHz scheduling device 619 of FIG. 6) may generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. At block 404, the device may cause to send the TWT setup frame to a responder device. At block 408, the device may allocate the one or more service periods on the second link, wherein the second link operates on a 60 GHz band. See Page 28, line 29, wherein the first link operates on a sub 7 GHz band), “the one or more indications comprising one or more of: an indication of one or more shared service periods for communication on the second radio frequency band with a first set of two or more second wireless communication devices” (See Page 12, lines 16-18, generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. See Page 9, lines 12-14, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. For example, an AP may setup a broadcast TWT SP where it communicates with multiple associated STAs within the SP) “ via time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, or spatial division multiplexing” (See Page 21, lines 4-8, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation), “and communicating, via the second radio frequency band and in accordance with the medium time interval, with a second wireless communication device of the first set of two or more second wireless communication devices, the second set of one or more second wireless communication devices, or the third set of one or more second wireless communication devices” (See Page 9, lines 12-16, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both).
CARIOU does not explicitly disclose that the service periods are dedicated service periods.
However, NEZOU discloses “dedicated service periods” (See [0022] These embodiments propose to use a service period dedicated for the transmission of a given type of traffic, for example traffic relating to LLRS, also referred to as low latency traffic or latency sensitive traffic or time sensitive traffic).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU with the teachings of NEZOU, to use dedicated service periods, and the motivation to do so would have been to provide reserved transmission opportunities for latency-sensitive traffic and thereby improve communication efficiency and fairness (NEZOU [0022]).
Regarding claim 44, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 5.
Regarding claim 45, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 6.
Regarding claim 53, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 14.
Regarding claim 60,
CARIOU discloses “A method for wireless communications at a first wireless communication device, comprising: receiving, via a first radio frequency band and from a second wireless communication device, one or more indications of a medium time interval for a second radio frequency band that is different than the second radio frequency band” (See Fig. 4, See Page 12, lines 15-23 At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1 and/or 20 the efficient 60 GHz scheduling device 619 of FIG. 6) may generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. At block 404, the device may cause to send the TWT setup frame to a responder device. At block 408, the device may allocate the one or more service periods on the second link, wherein the second link operates on a 60 GHz band. See Page 28, line 29, wherein the first link operates on a sub 7 GHz band), “the one or more indications comprising one or more of: an indication of one or more shared dedicated service periods for communication on the second radio frequency band with a first set of two or more first wireless communication devices, the first set of two or more first wireless communication devices comprising the first wireless communication device” (See Page 12, lines 16-18, generate a target wake time (TWT) setup frame to be sent on a first link comprising information for allocation of one or more service periods on a second link. See Page 9, lines 12-14, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. For example, an AP may setup a broadcast TWT SP where it communicates with multiple associated STAs within the SP) “via time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, or spatial division multiplexing” (See Page 21, lines 4-8, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation); “and communicating, via the second radio frequency band and in accordance with the medium time interval, with the second wireless communication device” (See Page 9, lines 12-16, an initiator STA can initiate communication with multiple other STAs within that SP. a STA may be granted an individual or Broadcast TWT SP within which it can initiate transmissions to either its associated AP or for P2P or both).
CARIOU does not explicitly disclose that the service periods are dedicated service periods.
However, NEZOU discloses “dedicated service periods” (See [0022] These embodiments propose to use a service period dedicated for the transmission of a given type of traffic, for example traffic relating to LLRS, also referred to as low latency traffic or latency sensitive traffic or time sensitive traffic).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU with the teachings of NEZOU, to use dedicated service periods, and the motivation to do so would have been to provide reserved transmission opportunities for latency-sensitive traffic and thereby improve communication efficiency and fairness (NEZOU [0022]).
Regarding claim 64, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 5.
Regarding claim 65, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 6.
Regarding claim 73, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 14.
Regarding claim 77, these limitations are rejected on the same ground as claim 38.
Claims 19-20, 39, 58-59 and 78 are rejected based on further defining an alternative not addressed in the rejection of claims 1, 21, 40 and 60.
Claims 2, 22, 41 and 61 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of LOU et al. (US 20260172996 A1).
Regarding claims 2, 22, 41 and 61,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 2 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 22 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 41 of “The method of claim 40, further comprising”, and claim 61 of “The method of claim 60, further comprising”, but does not explicitly disclose transmitting/ receiving a reference frame for the medium time interval, and indicating a timing of the reference frame.
However, LOI discloses “transmit, over a temporally-first portion of the medium time interval and via the second radio frequency band, a reference frame for the medium time interval, wherein the one or more indications of the medium time interval further comprise an indication of a timing of the reference frame for the medium time interval” (See [0168] STA1 may receive the mmW Beacon Assistant frame in a time slot that is based on the Target mmW Beacon Assistant Transmission Time field in the Beacon frame. The mmW Beacon Assistant frame may comprise a Target mmW Short Beacon Transmission Time field that may indicate the transmission time of a next set of Short Beacon frames transmitted on Link 2).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of LOU, and the motivation to do so would have been to facilitate efficient coordination of communications across multiple links.
Claims 7, 27, 46 and 66 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of CHITRAKAR et al. (US 20240314610 A1).
Regarding claims 7, 27, 46 and 66,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 7 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 27 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 46 of “The method of claim 40, further comprising”, and claim 66 of “The method of claim 60, further comprising”, but does not explicitly disclose a frame advertising availability of dedicated service periods and a request to use the one or more dedicated service periods.
However, CHITRAKAR discloses “transmit/receive, via the first radio frequency band, a frame advertising an availability of a set of dedicated service periods within the medium time interval, the set of dedicated service periods comprising the one or more shared dedicated service periods” (See [0090] When the Sensing transmitter is an AP (e.g. AP 1204), the AP may announce TWT SPs dedicated for sensing by including one or more broadcast TWT elements in the Beacon and Probe Response frames transmitted by the AP 1204), “and receive/ transmit, via the first radio frequency band from the second wireless communication device and responsive to the frame, a request to use the one or more shared dedicated service periods, wherein transmission of the one or more indications of the medium time interval is in association with reception of the request, and wherein the first set of two or more second wireless communication devices comprises the second wireless communication device” (See [0090] During the Sensing Setup phase, Sensing STAs (e.g., STA1 1202 and STAn 1206) may negotiate to join the broadcast Sensing TWT SPs 1208 and 1216 to be used for WLAN Sensing by exchanging TWT Setup frames with the AP 1204. For example, in a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) negotiation phase in which a Wake TBTT and a Wake Interval is negotiated, STA 1202 may send a TWT Request frame 1210 to AP 1204, which may respond with a TWT Response frame 1212 if the AP 1204 accepts the TWT request).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of CHITRAKAR, and the motivation to do so would have been to improve scheduling efficiency by notifying devices of dedicated transmission opportunities.
Claims 8, 28, 47 and 67 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of ZHU et al. (US 20250310876 A1).
Regarding claims 8, 28, 47 and 67,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 8 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 28 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 47 of “The method of claim 40, further comprising”, and claim 67 of “The method of claim 60, further comprising”, but does explicitly disclose a request to establish the dedicated service periods.
However, LU discloses “receive/ transmit, via the first radio frequency band from the second wireless communication device, a request for establishing the one or more shared dedicated service periods on the second radio frequency band, wherein transmission of the one or more indications of the medium time interval is in association with reception of the request” (See [0106] the establishment of the TWT may be implemented by interacting the TWT setup frames between the AP and the STA. For example, the STA may transmit a TWT setup request frame to the AP to request establishment of the TWT SP, and the AP may reply with a TWT setup response frame to the STA, to indicate the state of the requested TWT SP, for example, whether to agree to the establishment of the TWT SP or reject the establishment of the TWT SP).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of ZHU, and the motivation to do so would have been to improve medium access scheduling.
Claims 12-13, 32-33, 51-52 and 71-72 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of Alpert et al. (US 20230068824 A1).
Regarding claims 12, 32, 51 and 71,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 12 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein, to transmit the one or more indications of the medium time interval, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 32 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein, to receive the one or more indications of the medium time interval, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 51 of “The method of claim 40, wherein transmitting the one or more indications of the medium time interval comprises”, and claim 71 of “The method of claim 60, wherein receiving the one or more indications of the medium time interval comprises”, but does not explicitly disclose the on-demand service periods.
However, Alpert discloses “transmit/receive the indication of the one or more on-demand service periods, wherein communicating with the second wireless communication device comprises communicating with the second wireless communication device over a first on-demand service period of the one or more on-demand service periods” (See [0024] The station can join a TWT service by one of the following: The access point can transmit a beacon to the stations, where the beacon packet includes information on the upcoming round of service periods, such as the start time and duration of each service period. [0034] See Fig. 3, [0034] Timing diagram 300 shows an example of on-demand operation mode for a station, where the station communicates with the access point during bursts 310, 312, and 314 and then transitions to intervals 320 and 322 without communication).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of Alpert, and the motivation to do so would have been to reduce power consumption (Alpert [0043]).
Regarding claims 13, 33, 52 and 72,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU and Alpert discloses claim 13 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 12, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 33 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 32, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 52 of “The method of claim 51, further comprising”, and claim 72 of “The method of claim 71, further comprising”, “receive/ transmit, from the second wireless communication device, a request to use the first on-demand service period, wherein communication with the second wireless communication device over the first on-demand service period is in association with reception of the request” (See Alpert [0035] To initiate on-demand service during burst 312, the station can transmit a request to resume TWT service).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of Alpert, and the motivation to do so would have been to reduce power consumption (Alpert [0043]).
Claims 17, 36, 56 and 75 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of Li et al. (US 20220131956 A1).
Regarding claims 17, 36, 56 and 75,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 17 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein, to communicate with the second wireless communication device, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 36 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein, to communicate with the second wireless communication device, the processing system is configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, claim 56 of “The method of claim 40, wherein communicating with the second wireless communication device comprises”, and claim 75 of “The method of claim 60, wherein communicating with the second wireless communication device comprises”, but does not explicitly disclose setting the network allocation vector to a fixed value.
However, Li discloses “set a network allocation vector to a fixed value for communication via the second radio frequency band with the second wireless communication device” (See [0009] the ML entity sets the value of the target NAV of the second link to 0. This does not affect virtual carrier sensing of the ML entity on the second link by the communication on the first link, avoids delaying channel contention of the ML entity on the second link, and improves utilization of the second link by the ML entity).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of Li, and the motivation to do so would have been to avoid delaying contention on the second link and improve second link utilization (Li [0009]).
Claims 31 and 70 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CARIOU (WO 2024005794 A1) in view of NEZOU et al. (US 20240314836 A1), and further in view of Kim et al. (US 20240244662 A1).
Regarding claims 31 and 70,
CARIOU in view of NEZOU discloses claim 31 of “The first wireless communication device of claim 21, wherein the processing system is further configured to cause the first wireless communication device to”, and claim 70 of “The method of claim 60, further comprising”, but does not explicitly disclose receiving a frame indicating the second device does not intend to service the first device over a first service period, and operating in power saving mode over the first service period.
However, Kim discloses “receive, from the second wireless communication device and via the first radio frequency band, a frame comprising an indication that the second wireless communication device does not intend to service the first wireless communication device over a first shared dedicated service period of the one or more shared dedicated service periods” (See [0072] the soft AP MLD may transmit a frame (e.g., action frame) including information on a quiet time period (QTP) requesting transmission prohibition during the TWT SP of the third link through the first link and the second link. The frame including QTP information may be referred to as ‘QTP frame’); “and operate, in association with reception of the frame, in a power saving mode over the first shared dedicated service period” (See [0074] The STA 22 supporting low-power operations may operate in a sleep mode during the QTP in the second link).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of CARIOU and NEZOU with the teachings of Kim, and the motivation to do so would have been to improve power efficiency by reducing unnecessary power consumption.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4, 9-11, 15-16, 18, 23-24, 29-30, 35, 37, 42-43, 48-50, 54-55, 57, 62-63, 68-69, 74 and 76 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Cariou (US 2021/0153125 A1) discloses transmitting a capability field indicating whether the TWT SP mode is supported in [0104].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SALMA A AYAD whose telephone number is (571)270-0285. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 to 5:30 ET.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at 5712723927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SALMA AYAD/Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/KEVIN C. HARPER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
Prosecution Insights