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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application, Continuation Application 17/686,742 filed 3-4-22, now abandoned, under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. JP2021-15744 filed 9-17-21.
Information Disclosure Statement
These information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 7-16-24 & 3-3-25. These submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, these information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on 7-16-24. These drawings are acceptable.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Objections
Claim 2 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, lines 10-11,
“the controls” should be changed to ---the control units---
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)(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 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.
Claim(s) 1-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1-2) as being anticipated by Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1).
Regarding Claim 1.
A wireless communication device {Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1): Non-AP MLD 203-Fig.2} comprising:
a plurality of wireless units {Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1): transceivers 230, 232 & 234 in Fig.2 & ¶0041} configured to receive a first frame {Chitrakar: Data frames 1312a-Fig.13 and 1415, 1425 & 1435 in Fig.14, ¶0081} including a first number {Chitrakar: SN 7, 8, 9 in Fig.13 and sequence number SN in Fig.14 & ¶0081} and a second frame {Chitrakar: Data frames 1312b-Fig.13 and 1415, 1425 & 1435 in Fig.14, ¶0081} } including a second number {Chitrakar: SN 4, 5, 6 in Fig.13 and sequence number SN in Fig.14 & ¶0081}; and
a plurality of control units {Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1): modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078} configured to determine a receiving situation indicative of whether or not the first frame and the second frame have been successfully received {Chitrakar: the modules/STAs determine whether the receiving data frames successful or not, e.g. 0 or 1 in In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 & ¶0076 wherein “a bit set to “1” indicates successful frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit and a “0” indicates failed frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit”},
wherein each of the control units {Chitrakar: modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078} comprises a processing unit {Chitrakar: In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422, 1432 in Fig.14 & ¶0079}, and
wherein the processing unit {Chitrakar: In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422, 1432 in Fig.14 & ¶0079} is configured to:
store the receiving situation of the first frame as reception history information, initialize the reception history information after receiving the first frame and before receiving the second frame, and store the receiving situation of the second frame as reception history information after receiving the second frame {Chitrakar: In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 & ¶0076 wherein “a bit set to “1” indicates successful frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit and a “0” indicates failed frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit”, see also Fig.13}.
Regarding Claim 2. (Currently Corrected) The wireless communication device of claim 1, further comprising:
a high-order control unit {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14} connected to the plurality of control units {Chitrakar: modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078}, wherein:
each of the control units {Chitrakar: modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078, e.g. } transfers a successfully received frame among the first frame and the second frame to the high-order control unit {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14 receiving all the ACK/NACK from In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 of STAs 1410, 1420 & 1430}, and
the high-order control unit {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14} rearranges an order of the first frame and the second frame from each of the control units, based on the first number and the second number {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14}.
Regarding Claim 3. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein when receiving a third frame {Chitrakar: Multi-link BlockAck Request frames 1308-Fig.13} to require a response frame {Chitrakar: Multi-link BlockAck frames 1310-Fig.13} between the first frame {Chitrakar: data frame 1312a-Fig.13} and the second frame {Chitrakar: data frame 1312b-Fig.13}, each of the processing units {Chitrakar: In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422, 1432 in Fig.14 & ¶0079} does not initialize the reception history information relating to the receiving situation of the first frame {Chitrakar: data frame 1312a-Fig.13}.
Regarding Claim 4.
A wireless communication device comprising:
a plurality of wireless units {Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1): transceivers 230, 232 & 234 in Fig.2 & ¶0041} configured to receive a first frame including a first number {Chitrakar: the modules/STAs receiving data frames 1312a, 1312b, 1312c including SN 7, 8, 9; 4, 5, 6; & 1, 2, 3, respectively};
a plurality of control units {Chitrakar (US 2023/0011167 A1): modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078} configured to determine a receiving situation indicative of whether or not the first frame has been successfully received {Chitrakar: the modules/STAs determine whether the receiving data frames successful or not, e.g. 0 or 1 in In-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 & ¶0076 wherein “a bit set to “1” indicates successful frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit and a “0” indicates failed frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit”}; and
a high-order control unit {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14}, wherein:
each of the control units {Chitrakar: modules/STAs 1410, 1420, 1430 in Fig.14 & ¶0078, e.g. each in-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 of STAs 1410, 1420 & 1430 in Fig.14 holding the ACK/NACK (the claimed reception history information) of the receiving frames, ¶0081 & 1312-Fig.3} is configured to hold reception history information indicative of the first frame, a start number corresponding to the first number being set in the reception history information {Chitrakar: each in-band BA Scoreboard 1412, 1422 & 1432 of STAs 1410, 1420 & 1430 in Fig.14 holding the ACK/NACK (the claimed reception history information) of the receiving frames, ¶0081 & 1312-Fig.3}, and
the high-order control unit {Chitrakar: Multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406-Fig.14} is configured to control a difference between the start numbers set in the reception history information to fall within first information (e.g. size of all SN=1-9, the consolidated BlockAck bitmap 1314-Fig.13 with SN size=9) {Chitrakar: ¶0076 wherein “The Multi-link BA frames 1310 carry the consolidated bitmaps 1314 acknowledging the frames received on the three links—a bit set to “1” indicates successful frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit and a “0” indicates failed frame reception of the frame with SN corresponding to that bit;” ¶0077 wherein “The Multi-link BA 1310a consolidates the BlockAck bitmaps from the three links into the consolidated BlockAck bitmap 1314a. Bits 2, 5 and 6 corresponding to SN 2, 5 and 6 are set to “0” in the consolidated BlockAck bitmap 1314a indicating the failed reception of frames with SN 2, 5 and 6 while the rest of the bits are set to 1 to indicate successful reception;” ¶0082 wherein “the multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406 is updated with the content of the In-band Scoreboard 1412, 1422, 1432…the multi-link BA Scoreboard 1406 would have consolidated the BA bitmaps of all the In-band BA Scoreboards 1412, 1422, 1432.”}
Regarding Claim 5. The wireless communication device of claim 4, wherein the high-order control unit is configured to control a later start number (e.g. MPDU with SNs 3 and 5-15 that previously failed on be transmitted on Link 1 may be retransmitted on Link 1 to the recipient MLD, Fig.15C and MPDU with SN 31 that failed to be received on Link 2, Fig.15C) of a first start number (e.g. SNs 1-15 previously transmitted on Link 1, Fig.15A) and a second start number set (e.g. SNs 16-30 previously transmitted on Link 2, Fig.15A) in first reception history information (e.g. Link-1 Scoreboard 1512 on Link 1, Fig.15A) and second reception history information (e.g. Link-1 Scoreboard 1514 on Link 2, Fig.15A), respectively, in the plurality of control units, to advance (e.g. the MPDUs with SNs 16-30 previously received on Link 2 are forwarded to the next MAC process but the MPDUs with SNs 3 & 5-15 and 31 and above cannot be forwarded due to the gap caused by the transmission failure of MPDU with SNs 3 & 5-15 and 31, respectively; In other words, the MPDUs without SNs gap will be forwarded to the next MAC process, thus the later start number will be forwarded/advance to the next MAC process is the MPDUs with SNs 16-30, emphasis added).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 is 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.
Claims 7-8 are allowed over prior art.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 6~. The prior art fails to teach the wireless communication device of claim 4, wherein the first information is 2.sup.11.
-Claims 7-8 are allowable because the prior art fails to teach the italic limitations, which are considered in combination with other limitations, as specified as, in the independent claim as following:
Independent Claim 7.
A wireless communication device comprising:
a plurality of wireless units configured to transmit a first frame including a first number; and
a plurality of control units configured to transfer the first frame to the plurality of wireless units,
wherein each of the plurality of control units is configured to:
hold first information and, in a case where a difference between the first number corresponding to the first frame to be transmitted and a second number corresponding to a second frame which has been successfully transmitted exceeds the first information,
generate a third frame including the first number corresponding to the first frame before transmitting the first frame to be transmitted, and
transmit the third frame via the wireless units.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cherian (US 20180254861 A1) discloses a method, an apparatus, and a computer-readable medium for wireless communication. In one configuration, the apparatus may be configured to determine when to send an acknowledgment (ACK) frame, a block ACK frame, and/or an all-ACK frame in response to receiving a frame/physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU). In another configuration, the apparatus may be configured to resolve ambiguous confirmation message information. In another configuration, the apparatus may be configured to use an MPDU delimiter to indicate acknowledgement policy {Figs.1-5}.
Patil (US 20210212142 A1) discloses a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed, for example, by a first multi-link device (MLD), that includes a first station (STA) and a second STA, to generate and provide block acknowledgment (BA) status reports for Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) transmitted by the first STA of the first MLD and the second STA of the first MLD. Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed, for example, by a logical entity of a first MLD to receive and process a BA status report {Figs.1-18}.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUONGCHAU BA NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-3148. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 7:30 AM -5:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, RICKY NGO can be reached at 571-272-3139. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PHUONGCHAU BA NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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