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 .
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 1-3, 10-13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. PGPub. No. 20210281384 to Hu et al.
As to Claims 1, 10, and 20, Hu discloses an access point (AP), station (STA), and wireless communication method by a station, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is configured to store a computer program and the processor is configured to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory to cause the AP/STA to perform (Fig. 1, Fig. 20, paragraph [0038, 0067, 0068]):
determining an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) transmission comprising an OFDMA PPDU, wherein a data field of the OFDMA PPDU comprises a physical resource unit (RU) allocation mode, a logical RU allocation mode, and/or a hybrid RU allocation mode is used for the OFDMA PPDU (Fig. 6, Fig. 7, paragraph [0004, 0039, 0040, 0048, 0049, 0050], where the physical layer protocol data unit of the OFDMA system having support for RU allocation mode and RU allocation subfield).
As to Claims 2 and 11, Hu further discloses the AP and STA wherein the OFDMA PPDU comprises an OFDMA extremely high throughput (EHT) PPDU or an OFDMA PPDU for a next generation IEEE 802.11 technology beyond institute of electrical and electronic engineer (IEEE) 802.11be (Fig. 6, Fig. 7, paragraph [0002, 0004, 0006, 0039, 0048, 0049, 0050], where the physical layer protocol data unit of the OFDMA system having support for extremely high throughput (EHT) system and next generation of IEEE 802.11 standards).
As to Claims 3, 12, and 13, Hu further discloses the AP and STA further configured to invoke and run the computer program stored in the memory to cause the AP/STA to perform:
determining whether the OFDMA PPDU is used for downlink transmission or uplink transmission (Fig. 1, Fig. 7, paragraph [0038, 0067], where the physical layer protocol data unit of the OFDMA system supported for between APs, STAs, and AP and STA implicitly for both transmission and reception (uplink and downlink));
when the AP determines that the OFDMA PPDU is used for uplink transmission, a common information field of a trigger frame transmitted by the AP soliciting the OFDMA PPDU transmission comprises the RU allocation mode subfield, a bit position of the RU allocation mode subfield comprises two of B56, B57, B58, B60, B61, and B62 of the common information field (Fig. 7, paragraph [0038, 0039, 0040, 0050, 0067], where the common field (common information field) of the extremely high throughput (EHT)-SIG field is used and specific two bits of the overall frame bits will implicitly support B56-B62 to support IEEE 802.11 standards).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-9 and 14-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record fail to anticipate or render obvious step of wherein when the logical RU allocation mode is applied to the data field of the OFDMA PPDU, a logical RU or multiple resource unit (MRU) for the OFDMA PPDU comprises multiple logical subcarriers which are generated from physical subcarriers via a distributed tone mapping over a whole OFDMA PPDU bandwidth; or wherein a logical RU or MRU for the OFDMA PPDU comprises multiple logical subcarriers which are generated from physical subcarriers via a distributed tone mapping over each of 20 MHz subchannels in an OFDMA PPDU bandwidth; or wherein a logical RU or MRU for the OFDMA PPDU comprises multiple logical subcarriers which are generated from physical subcarriers via a distributed tone mapping over each of 80 MHz frequency subblocks in an OFDMA PPDU bandwidth; or wherein a logical RU or MRU for the OFDMA PPDU comprises multiple logical subcarriers which are generated from physical subcarriers via a distributed tone mapping over each of 160 MHz frequency subblocks in an OFDMA PPDU bandwidth.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNG S AHN whose telephone number is (571)270-3706. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9-6.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah Wang can be reached on 571-272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SUNG S AHN/Examiner, Art Unit 2631 (571)-270-3706
sung.ahn@uspto.gov
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