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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the application filed on 09/01/2024 has a total of 20 claims pending in the application; there are 3 independent claims and 17 dependent claims, all of which are ready for examination by the examiner.
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 1-20 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.
The claims recite the phrase “GHz” and MHz” without a corresponding meaning to each character. Examiner suggest amending at least the first appearance of each phrase to “Gigahertz (GHz)” and “Megahertz (MHz)” instead.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cordeiro et al. Publication No. (US 2010/0074190 A1) in view of AJAMI et al. Publication No. (US 2023/0104446 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Cordeiro teaches a device (communication station 130b FIG.1), the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage (a host processor with a flash memory device and a transceiver configured to communicate in a 2.4/5 GHz and a 60 GHz band [0011-12] FIG.1), the processing circuitry configured to:
establish a 60 GHz communication on a first frequency channel (the communication station 130b establishes a 60 GHz frequency band as a second channel 160 in communication with access point 100a and mobile station 110a operate as part of a peer-to-peer (P2P) network [0013-14] FIG.1);
identify a frame received from an access point (AP) or a first station device, wherein the frame is a communication between the AP and the first station device on the first frequency channel (The station monitors the second channel 160 in element 220 to locate a high frequency beacon and determine if the station can communicate over the second channel reliably, then an association request (ASS-REQ) frame is transmitted to the access point 100 using the first channel 150 to request communication in the second channel 160 (element 250 FIG.2). Otherwise, the station may associate with the access point 100 using the first channel 150. If the station does transmit an association request frame as detailed in element 250, then the access point 100 transmits and the station receives an association response frame (ASS-RSP) in element 260 to confirm association with the station [0015-16] FIG.2);
extract information from the frame, wherein the information identifies the frame from the AP (the station receives an association response frame from the AP 100a over the second channel 160 or a reservation request frame 410 addressed to the access point 100 over the first channel 150 from the mobile station 110, The reservation request frame 410 sent by the mobile station 110 may comprise information such as data traffic type, amount of required channel time, channel allocation frequency, and other data [0019-22] FIG.2) ; and
utilize a 60 GHz lower frequency channel to communicate with the AP or the first station device to indicate to the AP or the first station device to communicate using a different channel in a future communication (the first lower frequency beacon 315 may be sent from the access point 100 to the mobile station 110 of FIG. 1. The first lower frequency beacon 315 contains an element indicating availability of the second channel 160, using the higher frequency 60 GHz band. The second channel 160 communicates according to the 60 GHz protocol using a series of higher frequency beacon intervals 365 wherein each higher frequency beacon interval 365 comprises a beacon such as a first high frequency beacon 340 and a second high frequency beacon 345 [0017-18] FIG.3).
Cordeiro does not explicitly teach wherein the information identifies whether the frame is from the AP or the first station device
AJAMI teaches wherein the information identifies the first station device (AJAMI: the method can include receiving a request frame from a wireless station (STA) associated with the AP and also associated with a client device via a peer-to-peer (P2P) link, the request frame indicating that the STA intends to exchange P2P communications with the client device during a restricted target wake time (r-TWT) service period (SP) scheduled on a wireless medium, the request frame identifying the client device [0154-160] FIG.17).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Cordeiro by the teaching of AJAMI to i identifies the first station device from the frame in order to reduce contention and interference on the wireless medium during the allocated portion of the r-TWT SP. (AJAMI: [00127-128] FIG.10).
Regarding claim 2, the modified Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the 60 GHz lower frequency channel is equal to 320, 270, 160, or 135 MHz (AJAMI: PPDUs may be transmitted over physical channels having bandwidths of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160, or 320 MHz by bonding together multiple 20 MHz channels [0058-59] FIG.2).
Regarding claim 3, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the 60 GHz lower frequency channel is different from the first frequency channel (The lower frequency beacon is detected in element 210 by the station and information in the lower frequency beacon indicates to the station that the second channel 160 (60 GHz) is available for data communication, which is obtained by decoding the received lower frequency beacon from the first channel 150 [0015-16] FIG.2).
Regarding claim 4, the modified Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the information includes at least one of an association identification (AID) of the first station device, a basic service set (BSS) color of a corresponding 60 GHz AP associated with the first station device, or an index associated with the first frequency channel (A single AP 102 and an associated set of STAs 104 may be referred to as a basic service set (BSS), which is managed by the respective AP 102. The AP 102 assigns an association identifier (AID) to the STA 104 at the culmination of the association operations, which the AP 102 uses to track the STA 104 [0053-54] FIG.7).
Regarding claim 5, the modified Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the information further comprises an antenna index to indicate a beam the first frequency channel is using between the AP and the first station device (The RF transmitters and receivers may in turn be coupled to one or more antennas. For example, the wireless communication device 500 can include, or be coupled with, multiple transmit antennas (each with a corresponding transmit chain) and multiple receive antennas (each with a corresponding receive chain). The symbols output from the modem 502 are provided to the radio 504, which then transmits the symbols via the coupled antennas. Similarly, symbols received via the antennas are obtained by the radio 504, which then provides the symbols to the modem 502. [0080-81] FIG.5).
Regarding claim 6, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the AP is an AP multi-link device (MLD) and the first station device is a non-AP MLD (station 130b is multi-band wireless device in communication with MS 110a and AP 100a [0014-15] FIG.1).
Regarding claim 7, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to report an interference on the first frequency channel to an associated AP or an AP MLD (The station monitors the second channel 160 in element 220 to locate a high frequency beacon and determine if the station can communicate over the second channel reliably, such as by determining a quality of service (QOS) of the second channel based on parameters such as channel load and interference. If the QOS of the second channel is above a threshold value, which may be defined as a value sufficient to provide reliable communication for the type of data communicated over the second channel 160, then an association request (ASS-REQ) frame is transmitted to the access point 100 using the first channel 150 to request communication in the second channel 160 (element 250) [0016] FIG.2).
Regarding claim 8, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to utilize the first frequency channel using a 2.4 GHz to send an interference search frame (The station monitors the second channel 160 in element 220 to locate a high frequency beacon and determine if the station can communicate over the second channel reliably, such as by determining a quality of service (QOS) of the second channel based on parameters such as channel load and interference. If the QOS of the second channel is above a threshold value, which may be defined as a value sufficient to provide reliable communication for the type of data communicated over the second channel 160, then an association request (ASS-REQ) frame is transmitted to the access point 100 using the first channel 150 to request communication in the second channel 160 (element 250) [0016] FIG.2).
Regarding claim 9, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals (the wireless stations may comprise a host processor, a flash memory device, a random access memory and a transceiver configured to communicate either sequentially or simultaneously over a millimeter wave (mm-wave) network and a lower frequency network using wireless local area network (WLAN) and wireless personal area network (WPAN) technologies [0011-12] FIG.5).
Regarding claim 10, Cordeiro teaches the device of claim 4, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver to cause to send the frame (the wireless stations may comprise a host processor, a flash memory device, a random access memory and a transceiver configured to communicate either sequentially or simultaneously over a millimeter wave (mm-wave) network and a lower frequency network using wireless local area network (WLAN) and wireless personal area network (WPAN) technologies [0011-12] FIG.5).
Regarding claims 11-18, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-10, where the difference used is the limitations were presented from a “computer-readable medium” side and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Regarding claims 19-20, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-10, where the difference used is the limitations were presented from a “method” side and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims and interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Conclusion
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111 (c).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDELNABI O MUSA whose telephone number is (571)270-1901, and email address is abdelnabi.musa@uspto.gov ‘preferred’. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kevin Bates, can be reached on 571-2723980. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ABDELNABI O MUSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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