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 .
This is responsive to Application 18/807,781 filed 8/16/2024 in which claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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, 2, 5-11 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Saxena et al (US 2025/0056265 A1) in view of Wang et al (US 2013/0294331 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Saxena teaches a wireless communication device for facilitating wireless communication (Saxena: Fig. 3; AP 102a), comprising processing circuitry configured to cause:
transmitting a measurement announcement frame addressed to one or more neighboring access points and a station (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0121]-[0122], AP 102a transmits sounding announcement);
receiving a measurement report frame from the station, the measurement report frame including the channel information (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0122], measurement report from 104-b);
determining a relay access point based on the measurement report frame; and transmitting a first data unit to the station via the relay access point (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0122]-[0123], 102-b acting as relay).
Saxena does not explicitly disclose wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points.
Wang teaches wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points (Wang: Fig. 7; [0029]-[0032], RA 704 transmits announcement to stations STA 701, 702, 703; AP selects best relay agent, see [0030]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Saxena wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points as disclosed by Wang to provide a system for distributed relay discovery and data forwarding (Wang: Abstract).
Regarding claim 11, Saxena teaches a wireless communication device for facilitating wireless communication, comprising processing circuitry configured to cause:
receiving, from an associated access point having a first data unit to be addressed to the wireless communication device, a measurement announcement frame addressed to one or more neighboring access points and a station (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0121]-[0122], AP 102a transmits sounding announcement),
transmitting a measurement report frame to the associated access point, the measurement report frame including the channel information (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0122], measurement report from 104-b); and
receiving a second data unit from a relay access point determined based on the measurement report frame, the second data unit being generated by the relay access point based on the first data unit (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0122]-[0123], 102-b acting as relay).
Saxena does not explicitly disclose wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points.
Wang teaches wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points (Wang: Fig. 7; [0029]-[0032], RA 704 transmits announcement to stations STA 701, 702, 703; AP selects best relay agent, see [0030]).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Saxena wherein the measurement announcement frame triggers the one or more neighboring access points to transmit a training frame to the station and triggers the station to measure channel information based on training frames from the one or more neighboring access points as disclosed by Wang to provide a system for distributed relay discovery and data forwarding (Wang: Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein transmitting the first data unit to the station via the relay access point comprises: transmitting, to the relay access point, the first data unit to trigger the relay access point to generate a second data unit based on the first data unit and transmit the second data unit to the station (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0122]-[0123], 102-b acting as relay).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the second data unit includes an acknowledgement frame, the acknowledgement frame is for notifying the wireless communication device that the relay access point successfully received the first data unit (Wang: Fig. 3; acknowledgment 312, 313).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the measurement announcement frame includes information indicating the one or more neighboring access points which transmits the training frame, and information indicating the station which transmits the measurement report frame in response to the measurement announcement frame (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0121]-[0122], AP 102a transmits sounding announcement to all stations 102 and 104 for measurement purpose).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the measurement announcement frame includes information indicating when the one or more neighboring access points transmits the training frame, and information indicating when the station transmits the measurement report frame (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0121]-[0122], AP 102a transmits sounding announcement to all stations 102 and 104 for measurement purpose).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the measurement announcement frame includes information requesting the station to include, in the measurement report frame, information indicating whether the station has preference to change an access point associated with the station after a relay operation (Saxena: Fig. 5; [0121]-[0122], AP 102a transmits sounding announcement to all stations 102 and 104 for measurement purpose).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the measurement report frame has information indicating that the station wants to change an access point associated with the station after a relay operation (Wang: [0029]-[0030] AP selects the best relay based on measurement report).
Regarding claims 10 and 19, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the first data unit includes information instructing the station to change an access point associated with the station after the station transmits an acknowledgement frame to the first data unit (Wang: [0029]-[0030] AP selects the best relay based on measurement report).
Regarding claim 20, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the training frame is a null data physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) (Saxena: [0064], [0076]).
Claims 3, 4, 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Saxena et al (US 2025/0056265 A1) in view of Wang et al (US 2013/0294331 A1) in further view of Nakano et al (US 2024/0155407 A1).
Regarding claim 3, Saxena in view of Wang does not explicitly disclose wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause: receiving, from the station, an acknowledgement frame indicating that the station has successfully received the second data unit via the relay access point.
Nakano teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause: receiving, from the station, an acknowledgement frame indicating that the station has successfully received the second data unit via the relay access point (Nakano: Figs. 3-4, [0292]-[0297] block ACK from each STA; shared AP acting as relay).
It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Saxena in view of Wang wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause: receiving, from the station, an acknowledgement frame indicating that the station has successfully received the second data unit via the relay access point as disclosed by Wang to provide a system for coordinated communication between base stations (Nakano: Abstract).
Regarding claim 4, Saxena in view of Wang and Nakano teaches wherein the acknowledgement frame is modulated and coded based the lowest modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index (Nakano: Figs. 3-4, [0298]).
Regarding claim 12, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause: transmitting, to the associated access point, an acknowledgement frame indicating that the station has successfully received the second data unit via the relay access point (Nakano: Figs. 3-4, [0292]-[0297] block ACK from each STA; shared AP acting as relay).
Regarding claim 13, Saxena in view of Wang teaches wherein the acknowledgement frame is modulated and coded based the lowest modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index (Nakano: Figs. 3-4, [0298]).
Conclusion
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/KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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