DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The instant application No. 18796686 has claims 1-20 are pending.
2 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
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.
Claim(s) 1, 10-11 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102)a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (Pub. No. US 2013/0010597 A1; hereinafter Liu).
Regarding claim 1, Liu discloses a method comprising: generating, by a first access point (AP), an information element indicating quality of service (QoS) characteristics of a service set (SS) for the first AP; (20130010597-See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad.)
and transmitting, by the first AP, the information element to a second AP. (See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad)
Regarding claim 11, Liu discloses a first access point (AP), comprising: a transceiver; (see 0043, transceiver) and one or more processors (fig. 6 cpu) configured to: generate an information element indicating quality of service (QoS) characteristics of a service set (SS) for the first AP; (20130010597-See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad.) and transmit, via the transceiver, the information element to a second AP. (See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad)
Regarding claims 10 and 18, Liu discloses the information element is carried in at least one of a management or action frame, a spatial consistency sounding (SCS) request frame, an SCS response frame, or an individually addressed frame. (See 0016, An access point advertises (provides, reports, propagates, transmits, forwards) the traffic load or the quality-of-service (QoS) traffic load of its WLAN/BSS in its beacons or other management (control) signals (frames, packets).)
Regarding claim 19, Liu discloses the first AP comprises at least one of a hardware AP, a soft AP, or a peer-to-peer station (STA). (See 0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor APs or proactively requesting the information from its neighbor APs through management (control) message exchanges; interpreted the first AP is a hardware AP).
Regarding claim 20, Liu discloses a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a first access point (AP), (See 0045, The computer platform also includes an operating system and microinstruction code. The various processes and functions described herein may either be part of the microinstruction code or part of the application program (or a combination thereof), which is executed via the operating system.) cause the one or more processors to: generate an information element indicating quality of service (QoS) characteristics of a service set (SS) for the first AP; (20130010597-See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad.) and transmit, via a transceiver, the information element to a second AP. See ¶0016, The AP can obtains the QoS traffic load information of its neighbor WLANs/BSSs by passively listening to the beacons (or other signals) from its neighbor Aps; See 0017, The Overlapping QLoad Advertisements (Reports) information element (IE) can be used by an AP to advertise (report, provide, propagate, transmit, forward) the QLoad of its overlapping APs, besides its own QLoad)
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 2-6 and 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Huang (Pub. No. US 2025/0227537 A1; hereinafter Huang).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Liu fails to discloses the information element includes a control information field including a first subfield indicating a direction of the information element, wherein the first subfield is set to indicate that the information element is carrying the QoS characteristics of the SS.
Huang discloses the information element includes a control information field including a first subfield indicating a direction of the information element, wherein the first subfield is set to indicate that the information element is carrying the QoS characteristics of the SS. (20250227537- See 0134, the control information field includes at least one of the following: a direction (direction) field, a traffic identifier (TID) field, a user priority field, a presence bitmap of additional parameters, a link identifier (link ID) field, and a reserved field. In an embodiment, a TID in the control information may identify a traffic type, and a value of the TID ranges from 0 to 7, and 8 to 15 are reserved values; fig. 5b, See 0133, the QoS characteristics element includes a control information field)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Regarding claim 3, Liu fails to discloses the control information field further includes a second subfield identifying at least one of a link identifier or a bandwidth.
Huang discloses the control information field further includes a second subfield identifying at least one of a link identifier or a bandwidth. (20250227537See 0134, For example, as shown in (b) in FIG. 5b, the control information field includes at least one of the following: a direction (direction) field, a traffic identifier (TID) field, a user priority field, a presence bitmap of additional parameters, a link identifier (link ID) field, and a reserved field.)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Regarding claim 4, Liu fails to discloses the second subfield identifies the link identifier when the first subfield is set to a first value, and the second subfield identifies the bandwidth when the first subfield is set to a value other than the first value.
Huang discloses the second subfield identifies the link identifier when the first subfield is set to a first value, and the second subfield identifies the bandwidth when the first subfield is set to a value other than the first value. (20250227537See 0134, For example, as shown in (b) in FIG. 5b, the control information field includes at least one of the following: a direction (direction) field, a traffic identifier (TID) field, a user priority field, a presence bitmap of additional parameters, a link identifier (link ID) field, and a reserved field.)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Regarding claim 13, Liu fails to discloses the control information field further includes a second subfield identifying at least one of a link identifier or a bandwidth, and wherein the second subfield identifies the link identifier when the first subfield is set to a first value, and the second subfield identifies the bandwidth when the first subfield is set to a value other than the first value.
Huang discloses the control information field further includes a second subfield identifying at least one of a link identifier or a bandwidth, (20250227537See 0134, For example, as shown in (b) in FIG. 5b, the control information field includes at least one of the following: a direction (direction) field, a traffic identifier (TID) field, a user priority field, a presence bitmap of additional parameters, a link identifier (link ID) field, and a reserved field.) and wherein the second subfield identifies the link identifier when the first subfield is set to a first value, and the second subfield identifies the bandwidth when the first subfield is set to a value other than the first value. (20250227537See 0134, For example, as shown in (b) in FIG. 5b, the control information field includes at least one of the following: a direction (direction) field, a traffic identifier (TID) field, a user priority field, a presence bitmap of additional parameters, a link identifier (link ID) field, and a reserved field.)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Liu fails to discloses the QoS characteristics indicate traffic characteristics during respective service intervals identified in the information element.
Huang discloses the QoS characteristics indicate traffic characteristics during respective service intervals identified in the information element. (20250227537See 0133, FIG. 5b, the QOS characteristics element includes at least one of the following: an element identifier (element ID) field, a length field, an element identifier extension (element ID extension) field, a control information field, a minimum service interval (minimum service interval) field, a maximum service interval field, a minimum data rate field, a delay bound field, a maximum MSDU size field, a service start time field, a mean data rate field, a burst size field, an MSDU lifetime field, an MSDU delivery ratio field, an MSDU count exponent field, a medium time field, and a bandwidth.)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Liu fails to discloses the QoS characteristics comprise a minimum service interval, a maximum service interval, a delay bound, a service start time, and a medium time.
Huang discloses QoS characteristics comprise a minimum service interval, a maximum service interval, a delay bound, a service start time, and a medium time. (20250227537-See 0133, e QOS characteristics element includes at least one of the following: an element identifier (element ID) field, a length field, an element identifier extension (element ID extension) field, a control information field, a minimum service interval (minimum service interval) field, a maximum service interval field, a minimum data rate field, a delay bound field, a maximum MSDU size field, a service start time field, a mean data rate field, a burst size field, an MSDU lifetime field, an MSDU delivery ratio field, an MSDU count exponent field, a medium time field, and a bandwidth.)
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 AP exchanges information about QoS to include subfields have different information for QoS. The motivation to combine is QoS characteristics element is carried, it indicates that the transmitting end has a QoS requirement for the corresponding SCS stream, and needs to negotiate with the receiving end, or the receiving end needs to perform a measure such as optimization and improvement based on QoS measurement data of the SCS stream (See 0132).
Claim(s) 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Ratnam et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0365379 A1; hereinafter Ratnam).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Liu fails to discloses the information element further comprises a field indicating an identifier for the service set and a schedule identifier.
Ratnam discloses the information element further comprises a field indicating an identifier for the service set and a schedule identifier. (20240365379-See 102, each of the coordinating APs may schedule a quiet interval or an rTWT SP that aligns with the start time of this coordination SP. This can be to end transmissions in its own BSS so that the sharing AP can initiate multi-AP coordination; The identifier can be, for example, the APs' MAC addresses, their transmitting BSSIDs etc.; See 0085 and 0097, each of the coordinating APs may schedule a restricted TWT (rTWT) service period (SP) in their respective BSS such that the rTWT SPs are aligned in time with each other)
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 method and system disclosed by Liu to include exchange a scheduled quiet time period with BSSID. The motivation to combine is to reduce interference caused by overlapping BSS (See 0004).
Claim(s) 8-9 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu in view of Ajami et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0292456 A1; hereinafter Ajami).
Regarding claim 8, Liu fails to discloses the information element comprises a first information element, the method further comprising: receiving, by the first AP from the second AP, a second information element indicating QoS characteristics of a second SS for the second AP.
Ajami discloses the information element comprises a first information element, the method further comprising: receiving, by the first AP from the second AP, a second information element indicating QoS characteristics of a second SS for the second AP. ( 20240292456-See 0272, receiving the information indicative of the offloading of the wireless STA from the first wireless AP to the second wireless AP further includes: receiving, from the first wireless AP, channel and BSSID information associated with the second wireless AP or TWT allocation information associated with the second wireless AP, or both, where receiving the resource allocation from the second wireless AP is associated with receiving the channel and BSSID information or the TWT allocation information; See 0274-0275, he information associated with the data traffic constraints of the wireless STA includes QoS information or a set of parameters or capabilities associated with MLO at the wireless STA, or both; See 0115, QoS constraints and parameters (such as QoS constraints or QoS parameters indicated via a QoS Characteristics information element),)
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 AP exchanging information to include the exchange information includes a QoS constrains and parameters. The motivation to combine is the second AP 102 has a sufficient amount of resources for the requested P2P session, the first AP 102 may offload (such as handover or steer) the STA 104 to the second AP 102, and the second AP 102 may allocate resources for the P2P session at the STA 104 (See 0068).
Regarding claim 9, Liu fails to discloses establishing, by the first AP with the second AP, a coordinated target wake time (TWT) schedule according to the first information element and the second information element.
Ajami discloses establishing, by the first AP with the second AP, a coordinated target wake time (TWT) schedule according to the first information element and the second information element.( 20240292456-See 0272, receiving the information indicative of the offloading of the wireless STA from the first wireless AP to the second wireless AP further includes: receiving, from the first wireless AP, channel and BSSID information associated with the second wireless AP or TWT allocation information associated with the second wireless AP, or both, where receiving the resource allocation from the second wireless AP is associated with receiving the channel and BSSID information or the TWT allocation information; See 0274-0275, he information associated with the data traffic constraints of the wireless STA includes QoS information or a set of parameters or capabilities associated with MLO at the wireless STA, or both; See 0115, QoS constraints and parameters (such as QoS constraints or QoS parameters indicated via a QoS Characteristics information element),)
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 AP exchanging information to include the exchange information includes a QoS constrains and parameters. The motivation to combine is the second AP 102 has a sufficient amount of resources for the requested P2P session, the first AP 102 may offload (such as handover or steer) the STA 104 to the second AP 102, and the second AP 102 may allocate resources for the P2P session at the STA 104 (See 0068).
Regarding claim 17, Liu fails to discloses the information element comprises a first information element, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, via the transceiver from the second AP, a second information element indicating QoS characteristics of a second SS for the second AP; and establish, with the second AP, a coordinated target wake time (TWT) schedule according to the first information element and the second information element.
Ajami discloses the information element comprises a first information element, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, via the transceiver from the second AP, a second information element indicating QoS characteristics of a second SS for the second AP; .( 20240292456-See 0272, receiving the information indicative of the offloading of the wireless STA from the first wireless AP to the second wireless AP further includes: receiving, from the first wireless AP, channel and BSSID information associated with the second wireless AP or TWT allocation information associated with the second wireless AP, or both, where receiving the resource allocation from the second wireless AP is associated with receiving the channel and BSSID information or the TWT allocation information; See 0274-0275, he information associated with the data traffic constraints of the wireless STA includes QoS information or a set of parameters or capabilities associated with MLO at the wireless STA, or both; See 0115, QoS constraints and parameters (such as QoS constraints or QoS parameters indicated via a QoS Characteristics information element), and establish, with the second AP, a coordinated target wake time (TWT) schedule according to the first information element and the second information element. .( 20240292456-See 0272, receiving the information indicative of the offloading of the wireless STA from the first wireless AP to the second wireless AP further includes: receiving, from the first wireless AP, channel and BSSID information associated with the second wireless AP or TWT allocation information associated with the second wireless AP, or both, where receiving the resource allocation from the second wireless AP is associated with receiving the channel and BSSID information or the TWT allocation information; See 0274-0275, he information associated with the data traffic constraints of the wireless STA includes QoS information or a set of parameters or capabilities associated with MLO at the wireless STA, or both; See 0115, QoS constraints and parameters (such as QoS constraints or QoS parameters indicated via a QoS Characteristics information element),)
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 AP exchanging information to include the exchange information includes a QoS constrains and parameters. The motivation to combine is the second AP 102 has a sufficient amount of resources for the requested P2P session, the first AP 102 may offload (such as handover or steer) the STA 104 to the second AP 102, and the second AP 102 may allocate resources for the P2P session at the STA 104 (See 0068).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Huq et al. (Pub. No. US 2024/0340700 A1)-See 0063, Multi-AP selection phase 610 may also be used to exchange information related to multi-AP operation, including BSS information of APs and link quality information between each AP and its associated STAs, for example. The BSS information of an AP may include a BSS ID of the BSS of the AP, identifiers and/or capabilities of STAs belonging to the BSS, information regarding sounding capabilities of the STAs, information regarding MIMO capabilities of the AP, etc. Link quality information may include received signal strength indicator (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR), channel state information (CSI), channel quality indicator (CQI).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TEJIS DAYA whose telephone number is (571)270-7817. The examiner can normally be reached 6:30-4:30.
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, Nicholas Jensen can be reached at 571-270-5443. 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.
/Tejis Daya/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
Prosecution Insights