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 § 102
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.
Claim(s) 26, 36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jang EP 4633238.
Regarding claims 26, 36, Jang teaches an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless network, comprising:
at least one processor including processing circuitry; and
memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the AP MLD to:
disable a link on which an AP affiliated with the AP MLD is operating; and
abstain from terminating a basic service set (BSS) corresponding to the AP affiliated with the AP MLD, wherein the AP affiliated with the AP MLD maintains a link identifier (ID) assigned to the AP (As in the example of FIG. 14(c), announcement information may be included in the MLD parameter subfield of a TBTT information field. For example, a MLD parameter may include a MLD roaming enabled subfield corresponding to announcement information, in addition to a disabled link indication field including an AP MLD ID, a link ID, a BSS parameter change count and all updates, [0194]).
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.
Claim(s) 21, 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HUANG CN 118695399 and further in view of Cariou US 20230139206.
Regarding claim 21, 31, HUANG teaches an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless network,
comprising:
at least one processor including processing circuitry; and
memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the AP MLD to:
remove an AP affiliated with the AP MLD; and
terminate a basic service set (BSS) corresponding to the AP affiliated with the AP MLD (In combination with the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in one possible implementation, the BTM request frame further includes at least one of the following: whether the BSS stops information, link removal information, a link transfer information, the BSS whether termination information is used for indicating whether the BSS associated with the first non-co-located AP MLD is terminated, the link removal information is used for indicating whether to remove the link associated with the first non-co-located AP MLD, The link transfer information is used for indicating whether to transfer between different co-located AP MLD under the first non-co-located AP MLD.
Exemplary, the BTM request frame further includes at least one of the following: whether the BSS stops information, link removal information, a link transfer information, whether the BSS is terminated for indicating whether the BSS associated with the first non-co-located AP MLD is terminated, the link removal information is used for indicating whether the link associated with the first non-co-located AP MLD is removed (i.e., the link in which the BTM frame is received), The link transfer information is used to indicate whether to transfer between different co-located APMLDs belonging to the first non-co-located AP MLD),
Huang is silent on wherein when an AP MLD is removed a link identifier (ID) assigned to the AP is no longer assigned to the AP.
Cariou teaches when an AP MLD is removed a link identifier (ID) assigned to the AP is no longer assigned to the AP ([0073]).
Therefore 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 system of Huang by when an AP MLD is removed a link identifier (ID) assigned to the AP is no longer assigned to the AP, as shown by Cariou. This modification would benefit the system by since the link ID can be reassigned.
Claim(s) 27, 28, 37, and 38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jang as applied to claims 26 and 36 above, and further in view of Cariou US 20230397275.
Regarding claims 27, 37, Jang is silent the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, further cause the AP MLD to advertise a traffic
identifier (TID)-to-link mapping indicating the link in a broadcast frame.
Cariou teaches the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, further cause the AP MLD to advertise a traffic identifier (TID)-to-link mapping indicating the link in a broadcast frame (Advertised TID-to-link mapping 1002 allows the AP 502 or AP MLD 808 to include in the Beacon frames that it transmits a TID-to-link mapping 1002 which is adopted on all associated non-AP MLDs 809, [0118]).
Therefore 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 system of Jang by the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, further cause the AP MLD to advertise a traffic identifier (TID)-to-link mapping indicating the link in a broadcast frame, as shown by Cariou. This modification would benefit the system by providing a proven, reliable method to advertise a traffic identifier (TID)-to-link mapping.
Regarding claim 28, 38, to advertise a traffic identifier (TID)-to-link mapping (Cariou: [0118]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22-25, 29, 30, 32-35, and 39-40 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RONALD B ABELSON whose telephone number is (571)272-3165. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-4:30.
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/RONALD B ABELSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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