DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the national stage application of an international application that claims a foreign priority to a Korean application filed on 14 Feb 2022. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement, submitted on 27 Nov 2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6 and 12-14 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-3, 7, 10-11, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
A. Claims 2 and 10 recite, in part, “the second primary 20 MHz channel includes first to fourth Distributed Antenna System (DAS) primary channels,” where each of the first through fourth DAS primary channels “is an additional primary 20MHz channel.” It is unclear how the second primary 20MHz channel can constitutes four additional 20MHz DAS primary channels. Either each DAS primary channel is only 5 MHz (i.e. 4 x 5 = 20 MHz) or each DAS primary channel is the same as the second primary channel (i.e. operates over the same 20 MHz) and thus should not be named differently. Claims 3 and 11 are indefinite due to their dependence upon claims 2 and 11.
B. Claim 7 and 15 also require, in part, the second indication information to be sent only to “a receiving STA adjacent to each of the plurality of antenna ports.” Adjacent is a relative term. This creates ambiguity as to which receiving STAs qualify as STAs that will receive the second indication information.
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, 8, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 20210051722) in view of Rohfleisch (US 20130142186).
Regarding claims 1 and 8, Huang teaches a method in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system and a receiving station (STA) in the wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the receiving STA comprising: a memory; a transceiver; and a processor being operatively connected to the memory and the transceiver (Huang, figure 7 and ¶105), wherein the processor is configured to execute the method comprising:
receiving, by a receiving station (STA), control information from a transmitting STA (Huang, ¶¶116, 122-123– STAs receive RTS trigger frame with common SIG field; Huang, ¶174 – common info 2902 of a trigger frame [such as a RTS trigger frame] is “control information”); and
receiving, by the receiving STA, a Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) from the transmitting STA based on the control information (Huang, figure 22 and ¶155 – AP transmits PPDU to STA; Huang, ¶174 – data frame [i.e. PPDU] transmission complies with information provided in the trigger frame),
wherein the transmitting STA operates in a system in which a plurality of . . . [access points] are distributed (Huang, ¶145 figure 20 – multiple APs operate in the same environment and are controlled by the same central control entity),
wherein the control information includes first indication information for a first primary 20 MHz channel and second indication information for a second primary 20 MHz channel (Huang, ¶174 and figures 14 and 22 – each AP transmits over its channel based on the information indicated by the fields of the RTS trigger frame),
wherein the first primary 20 MHz channel is a primary 20 MHz channel that exists within one Basic Service Set (BSS) (Huang, ¶¶123-124 – AP1 and AP2 are a part of the extended BSS and each had a different primary 20 MHz channel), and
wherein the second primary 20 MHz channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel for each of the plurality of . . . [access points] (Huang, figure 14 and ¶124 – AP2 has a different primary 20 MHz channel than AP1).
Huang does not explicitly teach a plurality of “antenna ports,” each with a different channel. Instead, Huang teaches a plurality of “access points” controlled by the same entity (Huang, ¶145 and figure 20), where each access point has a different primary channel. Huang, ¶124. However, Rohfleisch teaches an access point that serves two basic service sets via different physical communication channels. Rohfleisch, ¶17. Each physical communication operates of a different antenna. Ibid. As a result, the access point contains a plurality of antenna “ports.” Id. at ¶25 and figure 5a (two antennas provides two ports for the BSS controller). At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to replace the multiple access points implementing the channelization, taught by Huang, with a single access points providing a plurality of basic service sets via different antennas, as taught by Rohfleisch, in order to dynamically improve the communication provided to the STAs by assigning STAs to different BSSs based on their QoS requirements, load, or capabilities. Rohfleisch, ¶¶28-30.
Regarding claim 9, Huang teaches a method in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a transmitting station (STA), control information (Huang, ¶123 and figure 14 – Aps receive multi-AP trigger frame; Huang, ¶174 – common info 2902 of a trigger frame [such as a multi-AP trigger frame] is “control information”);
generating, by the transmitting STA, a Physical Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) based on the control information (Huang, figure 22 and ¶155 – AP transmits PPDU to STA; Huang, ¶174 – data frame [i.e. PPDU] transmission complies with information provided in the trigger frame); and
transmitting, by the transmitting STA, the PPDU to a receiving STA (Huang, figure 22 and 27 – data transmissions [PPDUs] from AP to STA),
wherein the transmitting STA operates in a system in which a plurality of . . . [access points] are distributed (Huang, ¶145 figure 20 – multiple APs operate in the same environment and are controlled by the same central control entity),
wherein the control information includes first indication information for a first primary 20 MHz channel and second indication information for a second primary 20 MHz channel (Huang, ¶174 and figures 14 and 22 – each AP transmits over its channel based on the information indicated by the fields of the RTS trigger frame),
wherein the first primary 20 MHz channel is a primary 20 MHz channel that exists within one Basic Service Set (BSS) (Huang, ¶¶123-124 – AP1 and AP2 are a part of the extended BSS and each had a different primary 20 MHz channel), and
wherein the second primary 20 MHz channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel for each of the plurality of . . . [access points] (Huang, figure 14 and ¶124 – AP2 has a different primary 20 MHz channel than AP1).
Huang does not explicitly teach a plurality of “antenna ports,” each with a different channel. Instead, Huang teaches a plurality of “access points” controlled by the same entity (Huang, ¶145 and figure 20), where each access point has a different primary channel. Huang, ¶124. However, Rohfleisch teaches an access point that serves two basic service sets via different physical communication channels. Rohfleisch, ¶17. Each physical communication operates of a different antenna. Ibid. As a result, the access point contains a plurality of antenna “ports.” Id. at ¶25 and figure 5a (two antennas provides two ports for the BSS controller). At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to replace the multiple access points implementing the channelization, taught by Huang, with a single access points providing a plurality of basic service sets via different antennas, as taught by Rohfleisch, in order to dynamically improve the communication provided to the STAs by assigning STAs to different BSSs based on their QoS requirements, load, or capabilities. Rohfleisch, ¶¶28-30.
Claims 2, 3, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang (US 20210051722) in view of Rohfleisch (US 20130142186) and further in view of Wang (US 12457643).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, the combination of Huang and Rohfleisch teaches the methods of claims 1 and 9 and all access points operating over the same 80 MHz (Huang, ¶147), each access point with its own primary channel (Huang, ¶124), and one access point providing a plurality of antenna ports. Rohfleisch, ¶¶17, 25. The combination of Huang and Rohfleisch does not explicitly teach “wherein based on the plurality of . . . [access points] including first to fourth . . . [access points], the second primary 20 MHz channel includes first to fourth Distributed Antenna System (DAS) primary channels, wherein the first DAS primary channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel of the first . . . [access point], wherein the second DAS primary channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel of the second . . . [access point], wherein the third DAS primary channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel of the third . . . [access point], wherein the fourth DAS primary channel is an additional primary 20 MHz channel of the fourth . . . [access point].”
However, Wang teaches four access points operating over 80 MHz. Wang, figure 7a and 29:6-7. The coordinating AP of Wang allocates 20 MHz channels for each of access points 1-4. Id. at 29:8-17. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to coordinate the primary channels of each antenna port of an access point, as taught by the combination of Huang and Rohfleisch, by dividing 80 MHz equally among four devices, as taught by Wang, in order to implement mult-AP sounding over the same 4 ms TXOP. Wang, 28:65-29:7.
Regarding claims 3 and 11, the combination of Huang, Rohfleisch, and Wang also teaches wherein the one BSS is a BSS of the transmitting STA (Huang, ¶123 – access points [i.e. transmitting STAs] provide extended BSS), wherein channel sensing is performed on the first primary 20 MHz channel or the first to fourth DAS primary channels. Wang, 9:34-38; Huang, ¶132 (solicited PPDU is transmitted after CTS); Huang, figure 14 (after the CTS sent on the first 20 MHz channel, the AP transmits the data frame/PPDU on the 1st 20 MHz channel [unshown in figure 14, but shown in figure 27, where “data transmissions” follows the “polling and scheduling for STAs of each AP”]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for using EFS or mail, but not email to authorize electronic communications). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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