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 1-20 are subject to examination and rejected.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lorgeoux (US PGPub 2025/0016860).
Regarding claims 1, 10 and 19, Lorgeoux teaches a link state indication method (Lorgeoux, see abstract, In wireless networks implementing multilink transmissions, a non-AP MLD declares EMLMR capabilities in a ML Association Request, with a set of eligible EMLMR links), comprising:
generating, by a non-access point multi-link device (non-AP MLD), a third frame (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0119, During the ML setup procedure, the non-AP MLDs also declare part or all of their capabilities. For instance, they may declare their EMLSR capability and/or EMLMR capability), wherein the third frame comprises: third indication information and fourth indication information (Lorgeoux, see figures 2 and 3a-3b, figure 2 shows a Basic variant Multi-Link Element as specified in the D1.3 standard and figures 3a and 3b show the formats of an EML Control field forming an EML OM Notification frame used to activate or deactivate an EML OM as defined in the IEEE P802.11 be/D1.1 standard), wherein the third indication information indicates that a state of a link of the non-AP MLD changes and that the non-AP MLD supports an enhanced multi-link single radio (EMLSR) mode (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0128, EMLSR Support subfield 221, preferably a one-bit subfield, indicates support of the EMLSR operation for the MLD. EMLSR Support field 251 is set to 1 if the MLD supports the EMLSR operation), and wherein the fourth indication information indicates an available link or a link whose state changes in the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0149, EMLSR Link Bitmap subfield 321 is typically coded over 8 or 16 bits and indicates a set of enabled links or subset of the enabled links that is used by the non-AP MLD in the EMLSR mode); and
sending, by the non-AP MLD, the third frame (Lorgeoux, see figure 4 and paragraph 0152, a STA affiliated with the non-AP MLD 401 transmits an EML OM Notification frame 420 (FIG. 3 a ) to an AP affiliated with AP MLD 402).
Regarding claims 2, 11 and 20, Lorgeoux teaches wherein the third indication information indicates that the non-AP MLD supports a non-simultaneous transmit and receive (NSTR) mode (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0299, An AP MLD may for instance be aware of a quantity of data to be sent in downlink intended to non-AP stations, of current interferences in the BSS or of NSTR constraints for a specific AP such as soft-AP).
Regarding claims 3 and 12, Lorgeoux teaches wherein when the state changes to a disabled state, the method further comprises:
indicating, by the third indication information, that there is a disabled link (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0128, EMLSR Support subfield 221, preferably a one-bit subfield, indicates support of the EMLSR operation for the MLD. EMLSR Support field 251 is set to 1 if the MLD supports the EMLSR operation; otherwise it is set to 0); and
indicating, by the fourth indication information, an available link of the non-AP MLD or a disabled link of the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0161, If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLSR mode, it sets the EMLSR Mode subfield 311 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLMR mode, it sets the EMLMR Mode subfield 312 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. In the example of FIG. 4 , EMLSR Mode subfield is set to 0 to deactivate the currently active EMLSR mode).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Lorgeoux teaches wherein when the state changes to an available state, the method further comprises:
indicating, by the third indication information, that there is an unavailable link that has changed to an available link in the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0128, EMLSR Support subfield 221, preferably a one-bit subfield, indicates support of the EMLSR operation for the MLD. EMLSR Support field 251 is set to 1 if the MLD supports the EMLSR operation; otherwise it is set to 0); and
indicating by the fourth indication information, that an available link of the non-AP MLD or an EMLSR link that has changed from unavailable to available in the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0161, If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLSR mode, it sets the EMLSR Mode subfield 311 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLMR mode, it sets the EMLMR Mode subfield 312 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. In the example of FIG. 4 , EMLSR Mode subfield is set to 0 to deactivate the currently active EMLSR mode).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Lorgeoux teaches wherein when the state changes to a disabled state or when an unavailable link of the non-AP MLD changes to an available state, the method further comprises:
indicating, by the third indication information, that there is a disabled link and that there is no unavailable link that has changed to an available link in the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0128, EMLSR Support subfield 221, preferably a one-bit subfield, indicates support of the EMLSR operation for the MLD. EMLSR Support field 251 is set to 1 if the MLD supports the EMLSR operation; otherwise it is set to 0); or
indicating, by the third indication information, that there is no disabled link and that there is an unavailable link that has changed to an available link in the non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0161, If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLSR mode, it sets the EMLSR Mode subfield 311 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. If non-AP MLD 401 intends to disable the EMLMR mode, it sets the EMLMR Mode subfield 312 of the EML Control field 300 a of frame 460 to 0. In the example of FIG. 4 , EMLSR Mode subfield is set to 0 to deactivate the currently active EMLSR mode).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Lorgeoux teaches wherein the third indication information further comprises a high throughput (HT) control field or an aggregated control (A-control subfield), and wherein the HT control field or the A-control subfield comprises the third indication information and the fourth indication information (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0122, Basic variant Multi-Link element 200 includes Element ID field, Length field (enabling to know the presence or not of the optional fields as well as the number of Per-STA profiles in field), Element ID Extension field, Multi-Link Control field, optional Common Info field 210 and optional Link Info field 250).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Lorgeoux teaches wherein the third frame comprises an enhanced multi-link (EML) operating mode notification (OMN) frame (Lorgeoux, see figure 4 and paragraph 0152, a STA affiliated with the non-AP MLD 401 transmits an EML OM Notification frame 420 (FIG. 3 a ) to an AP affiliated with AP MLD 402), wherein the EML OMN frame further comprises an EML control field (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0122, Basic variant Multi-Link element 200 includes Element ID field, Length field (enabling to know the presence or not of the optional fields as well as the number of Per-STA profiles in field), Element ID Extension field, Multi-Link Control field, optional Common Info field 210 and optional Link Info field 250), and wherein the EML control filed comprises the third indication information, and an EMLSR mode subfield set to one (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0122, Basic variant Multi-Link element 200 includes Element ID field, Length field (enabling to know the presence or not of the optional fields as well as the number of Per-STA profiles in field), Element ID Extension field, Multi-Link Control field, optional Common Info field 210 and optional Link Info field 250).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Lorgeoux teaches wherein the EML control field further comprises one or more of a disabling start time, an availability start time, a disabling end time, a disabling duration, or transmit and receive capabilities of an available link of the EMLSR non-AP MLD (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0122, Basic variant Multi-Link element 200 includes Element ID field, Length field (enabling to know the presence or not of the optional fields as well as the number of Per-STA profiles in field), Element ID Extension field, Multi-Link Control field, optional Common Info field 210 and optional Link Info field 250).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Lorgeoux teaches wherein the fourth indication information is a bitmap, wherein one bit of the fourth indication information corresponds to one link, wherein when the bit in the fourth indication information is set to a first value, the bit indicates that a link corresponding to the bit is an available link or a link whose state changes, and wherein when the bit is set to a second value, the bit indicates that the link is an unavailable link or a link whose state does not change (Lorgeoux, see paragraph 0122, Basic variant Multi-Link element 200 includes Element ID field, Length field (enabling to know the presence or not of the optional fields as well as the number of Per-STA profiles in field), Element ID Extension field, Multi-Link Control field, optional Common Info field 210 and optional Link Info field 250).
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.
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 R. Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. 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.
/CHONG G KIM/Examiner, Art Unit 2443
/NICHOLAS R TAYLOR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2443
Prosecution Insights