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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 filed on August 29, 2024 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 17, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner and an initialed and dated copy of the Applicant’s IDS form 1449 is attached to the instant Office Action.
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 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ryu et al. (US 2024/0422674 A1, hereinafter "Ryu") in view of Cariou et al. (US 2023/0139206 A1, hereinafter "Cariou").
Regarding claim 1, Ryu discloses a method performed by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), the method comprising:
establishing, with a non-AP MLD, a first link between a first station (STA) of the non-AP MLD and a first AP of the AP MLD and a second link between a second STA of the non-AP MLD and a second AP of the AP MLD (Ryu, [0063] a multi-link environment including an AP multi-link device (AP MLD) 410 and a STA multi-link device (STA MLD) 420… have three affiliated STAs, STA 421, STA 422, and STA 423);
mapping a plurality of traffic identifications (TIDs) to the first link and the second link utilizing TID-to-link mapping (TTLM) (Ryu, [0063, 0092] AP 411, AP2 412, and AP3 413 may be communicatively coupled via a first link (link 1), a second link (link 2), and a third link (link 3) respectively with STA 421, STA 422, and STA 423, respectively; The traffic info control field may include a DL TID bitmap valid subfield and an UL TID bitmap valid subfield);
identifying a first event triggering a reduced power operation mode on the second link (Ryu, [0066] STA 421, STA 422, and STA 423 may enter a doze state (i.e. reduced power operation) between the end of initial TWT SPs 430-1, 430-2, and 430-3); but does not explicitly disclose modifying a number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the first event.
Cariou from the same field of endeavor discloses modifying a number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the first event (Cariou, [0066] the link enablement/disablement phase may enable the new links and disable the old links using TID-link-mapping function).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified multilink power save mode disclosed by Ryu and arrangement for transition disclosed by Cariou with a motivation to make this modification in order to suggest a preferred mapping (Cariou, [0214]).
Regarding claim 2, Ryu discloses wherein modifying the number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link comprises:
selecting certain TIDs from among the plurality of TIDs that balance traffic or channel loads of the first and second links; and mapping the certain TIDs to the second link utilizing the TTLM (Ryu, [0137] a STA affiliated with a non-AP MLD and operating on an enabled link (a link having at least of TID mapped to it) may maintain its own power management mode and power states).
Regarding claim 3, Ryu does not explicitly disclose wherein modifying the number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link comprises: mapping none of the plurality of TIDs to the second link; and disabling the second link.
Cariou from the same field of endeavor discloses mapping none of the plurality of TIDs to the second link (Cariou, [0066] the non-AP MLD may be associated to the non-collocated AP MLD via links AP STA 1, AP STA 2, and AP STA 3 and links AP STA 4, AP STA 5, and AP STA 6… and disable the old links using TID-link-mapping function); and disabling the second link (Cariou, [0067] During the link enablement/disablement phase, the non-AP MLD may transmit a TID-to-link mapping request frame and receive a TID-to-link mapping response frame including the link ID of the non-collocated AP MLD to enable the links or disable the links).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified multilink power save mode disclosed by Ryu and arrangement for transition disclosed by Cariou with a motivation to make this modification in order to suggest a preferred mapping (Cariou, [0214]).
Regarding claim 4, Ryu discloses wherein modifying the number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link comprises:
mapping none of the plurality of TIDs to the second link; and
maintaining management operations on the second link (Ryu, [0137] During multi-link operation, a STA affiliated with a non-AP MLD and operating on an enabled link (a link having at least of TID mapped to it) may maintain its own power management mode and power states).
Regarding claim 5, Ryu discloses wherein maintaining management operations on the second link comprises transmitting at least one of a beacon or a probe response on the second link (Ryu, [0137] the power save operation of a STA affiliated with a non-AP MLD during multi-link operation).
Regarding claim 6, Ryu discloses identifying a second event triggering a modification of the modified power operation mode on the second link (Ryu, [0102] At the end of the TWT SP 720, STA 711 and STA 712 may return to a doze state); but does not explicitly disclose re-modifying the modified number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the second event.
Cariou from the same field of endeavor discloses re-modifying the modified number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the second event (Cariou, [0066] the link enablement/disablement phase may enable the new links and disable the old links using TID-link-mapping function).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified multilink power save mode disclosed by Ryu and arrangement for transition disclosed by Cariou with a motivation to make this modification in order to suggest a preferred mapping (Cariou, [0214]).
Regarding claim 7, Ryu does not explicitly disclose wherein identifying the second event triggering the modification of the reduced power operation mode comprises identifying that no non-MLD STAs receive the second link.
Cariou from the same field of endeavor discloses mapping none of the plurality of TIDs to the second link (Cariou, [0066-67] the non-AP MLD may be associated to the non-collocated AP MLD via links AP STA 1, AP STA 2, and AP STA 3 and links AP STA 4, AP STA 5, and AP STA 6… and disable the old links using TID-link-mapping function; During the link enablement/disablement phase, the non-AP MLD may transmit a TID-to-link mapping request frame and receive a TID-to-link mapping response frame including the link ID of the non-collocated AP MLD to enable the links or disable the links).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified multilink power save mode disclosed by Ryu and arrangement for transition disclosed by Cariou with a motivation to make this modification in order to suggest a preferred mapping (Cariou, [0214]).
Regarding claim 8, Ryu discloses identifying a second event triggering an end to the reduced power operation mode on the second link (Ryu, [0102] At the end of the TWT SP 720, STA 711 and STA 712 may return to a doze state); but does not explicitly disclose re-mapping the plurality of TIDs to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the second event.
Cariou from the same field of endeavor discloses re-mapping the plurality of TIDs to the second link utilizing the TTLM, in response to identifying the second event (Cariou, [0066] the link enablement/disablement phase may enable the new links and disable the old links using TID-link-mapping function).
It would have been obvious for one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified multilink power save mode disclosed by Ryu and arrangement for transition disclosed by Cariou with a motivation to make this modification in order to suggest a preferred mapping (Cariou, [0214]).
Regarding claim 9, Ryu discloses wherein identifying the second event triggering an end to the reduced power operation mode comprises at least one of:
identifying a traffic or channel load above a threshold (Ryu, [0028] wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (TWT SP) start time by adding a value of a TWT wake interval associated with the TWT agreement to the value of the start time of the current TWT SP);
identifying a duty cycle interval (Ryu, [0055] determine a next TWT service period); or
receiving a request from an STA (Ryu, [0053] TWT, a STA that requests a TWT agreement is called a TWT requesting STA).
Regarding claim 10, Ryu discloses wherein identifying the first event triggering the reduced power operation mode comprises at least one of:
identifying a traffic or channel load below a threshold (Ryu, [0028] wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics (TWT SP) start time by adding a value of a TWT wake interval associated with the TWT agreement to the value of the start time of the current TWT SP);
identifying a duty cycle interval (Ryu, [0055] determine a next TWT service period).
Regarding claim 11, Ryu discloses maintaining the number of the plurality of TIDs mapped to the first link, in response to identifying the first event (Ryu, [0137] a STA affiliated with a non-AP MLD and operating on an enabled link (a link having at least of TID mapped to it) may maintain its own power management mode and power states).
Regarding claim 12, Ryu discloses transmitting, to the non-AP MLD, a beacon indicating a transition to the reduced power operation mode (Ryu, [0107] AP 810 may include a broadcast TWT element in a beacon frame that indicates a broadcast TWT SP 820).
Regarding claim 13, Ryu wherein the beacon is transmitted on the first link Ryu, [0107] AP 810 may include a broadcast TWT element in a beacon frame that indicates a broadcast TWT SP 820).
Regarding claims 14-20, these claims recite "an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD)" that disclose similar steps as recited by the method of claims 1-6 and 11, thus are rejected with the same rationale applied against claims 1-6 and 11 as presented above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUNA WEISSBERGER whose telephone number is (571)272-3315. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00am-5:30pm.
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/LUNA WEISSBERGER/Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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