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 .
Claims 1-19 are subject to examination and rejected.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because of the informality of the abstract: the present abstract includes the elements of [Object] and [Solution]. These elements are not conforming to the requirement of the abstract disclosure. Examiner suggests to remove these elements out of the abstract. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 10 and 19 recite the limitations "… control the transceiver to transmit the second wireless signal, wherein the transmission power is …”. There are insufficient antecedent bases for these limitations in the claims. The terms “the second wireless signal” and “the transmission power” do not have proper antecedent bases in the referenced claims 1, 10 and 19.
Claims 1, 10 and 19 recite the limitations ".. the higher the determined reception power is, the lower the transmission power is.”. The claim recites these limitations as an idiom expression that is not conforming to the requirement of claim languages. Furthermore, the phrases "the higher …, the lower …" renders the claims indefinite because the claims include elements not particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter, thereby rendering the scope of the claims unascertainable. Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 1, 10 and 19 recite the limitation “the transmission power”. However, it is now clear if the transmission power belongs to the first wireless signal or to the second wireless signal, thereby rendering the scope of the claims unascertainable. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Son (US PGPub 2017/0164406) in view of Kwon (US PGPub 2017/0105217).
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 19, Son teaches a communication control device (Son, see paragraph 0058, wireless communication terminal), comprising:
circuitry configured (Son, see paragraph 0061, a processor controlling an operation of the terminal) to:
control a transceiver of a wireless communication device to receive a first wireless signal transmitted by another wireless communication device belonging to another network different from a network to which the wireless communication device belongs (Son, see paragraph 0133, when a received wireless signal of a specific channel is the wireless LAN signal … When the BSS identifier information extracted from the wireless signal is different from the BSS identifier information of the terminal (that is, in the case of OBSS wireless LAN signal 452) …),
acquire information related to a length or a transmission time of the first wireless signal in the first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0029, extracting length information from the wireless signal wherein the length information represents information relating to a transmission completion time point of the wireless signal),
determine that the first wireless signal is transmitted from the other wireless communication device on a basis of identification information included in the first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0133, When the BSS identifier information extracted from the wireless signal is different from the BSS identifier information of the terminal (that is, in the case of OBSS wireless LAN signal 452)),
determine a reception power of the first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0121, the signal detection (CCA-SD) is a method that measures a signal strength of a preamble of a wireless LAN (that is, 802.11) frame), and
control the transceiver to transmit the second wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0188, in the OBSS, the terminal OT may transmit data O_DATA to the terminal OR and the terminal OR may transmit a response message O_ACK to the terminal OT in response to the received data O_DATA).
Son teaches the above yet fails to teach wherein the transmission power is based on an inverse power relationship between the transmission power of the second wireless signal and the determined reception power such that that the higher the determined reception power is. the lower the transmission power is.
Then Kwon teaches wherein the transmission power is based on an inverse power relationship between the transmission power of the second wireless signal and the determined reception power such that that the higher the determined reception power is. the lower the transmission power is (Kwon, see paragraph 0078, AP2 assesses the wireless medium as IDLE by reducing its transmission power, because the first threshold value is inversely proportional to the transmission power and the received signal strength of the frame is below the first OBSS_PD level with a transmission power reduction of P1. STA2 assesses the wireless medium as IDLE with reducing its transmission power, because the second OBSS_PD level is inversely proportional to the transmission power and the received signal strength of the frame is below the second OBSS_PD level with transmission power reduction of P2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Son with Apparatus and methods for virtual channel sensing of Kwon, because doing so would make Son more efficient in improving spatial reuse in a clear channel assessment (CCA) process in a wireless local area network (Kwon, see paragraph 0021).
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to control the transceiver to transmit the second wireless signal with a length based on the first information (Son, see paragraph 0184, by appropriately configuring a length field of the L-SIG, the legacy terminals may perform a transmission delay (NAV configuration, and the like) by using L-SIG length information of other terminal packets when the transmission delay is required due to transmission of other terminals).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a length of the second wireless signal so that an end time of the second wireless signal is on or before an end time of the first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0184, by appropriately configuring a length field of the L-SIG, the legacy terminals may perform a transmission delay (NAV configuration, and the like) by using L-SIG length information of other terminal packets when the transmission delay is required due to transmission of other terminals).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a length of the second wireless signal so that an end time of the second wireless signal is on or before an end time of an acknowledge signal that is transmitted as a response to the first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0184, by appropriately configuring a length field of the L-SIG, the legacy terminals may perform a transmission delay (NAV configuration, and the like) by using L-SIG length information of other terminal packets when the transmission delay is required due to transmission of other terminals).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine whether or not the received first wireless signal is transmitted from the other terminal on a basis of a basic service set (BSS) Color included in the received first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0168, the BSS identifier information is information acquired by classifying the actual BSS identifier into a predetermined category and may be named even as a BSS color).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine a transmission timing of another second wireless signal that is transmitted following the transmission of the second wireless signal on a basis of information related to a sequence of the received first wireless signal (Son, see paragraph 0184, by appropriately configuring a length field of the L-SIG, the legacy terminals may perform a transmission delay (NAV configuration, and the like) by using L-SIG length information of other terminal packets when the transmission delay is required due to transmission of other terminals).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the information related to the sequence of the received first wireless signal is information related to an acknowledgment received from an access point by the other terminal after transmission of a wireless signal transmitted by the other terminal is completed (Son, see paragraph 0190, the terminal MR receiving MY_DATA from the terminal MT transmits a response message MY_ACK in response thereto).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to control the transceiver to transmit another second wireless signal which is transmitted following the transmission of the second wireless signal at least after the other terminal receives an acknowledgment from the access point (Son, see paragraph 0190, the terminal MR receiving MY_DATA from the terminal MT transmits a response message MY_ACK in response thereto).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Son in view of Kwon teaches wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
transmit a reception power of a signal transmitted from the other terminal (Son, see paragraph 0121, the signal detection (CCA-SD) is a method that measures a signal strength of a preamble of a wireless LAN (that is, 802.11) frame), and
determine that a medium is in an idle state in a case in which: the received first wireless signal is determined to be the signal transmitted from the other terminal (Son, see paragraph 0116, when a wireless signal is not sensed in the corresponding channel or a wireless signal having a strength smaller than the CCA threshold is sensed, it is determined that the channel is idle), and
a reception power of the signal transmitted from the other terminal is equal to or lower than a threshold value related to the signal transmitted from the other terminal (Son, see paragraph 0121, the signal detection (CCA-SD) is a method that measures a signal strength of a preamble of a wireless LAN (that is, 802.11) frame).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHONG G KIM whose telephone number is (571)270-0619. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri @ 9am - 5pm.
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/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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