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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/04/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 8-10, 13-18, 23-25, and 27-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Choi et al. (US 20180132175).
Regarding claim 1, Choi discloses a wireless communication device, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one memory (Fig. 7), the at least one processor operable to cause the wireless communication device to:
receive, via a first wireless communication link, one or more first packets carrying power management information indicating whether a first wireless station (STA) is in an awake state or a power save mode on the first wireless communication link (an STA (or TWT request STA, TWT scheduled STA) intending to operate in a power save mode may transmit to an AP (or TWT response STA, TWT scheduling STA) a frame (or TWT request frame) including the TWT request element; [0056].
control field 230 may include a power management (PM) mode field; [0078]); and
provision one or more resources for communication with the first STA in accordance with a first link residency metric (LRM) associated with the power management information carried in the one or more first packets and indicating an average amount of time the first STA is in the awake state on the first wireless communication link (TWT may be a time resource configured to manage activity in a BSS. It may be defined to minimize an STA operation for the awake state by allowing the STA to operate at a different time on the basis of the TWT configuration; [0051].
STA may transmit information regarding the TWT pattern (or a TWT parameter for determining TWT) to the AP on the basis of the TWT request element 200. As a pattern of a TWT, a TWT pattern may be determined on the basis of the target wake time field 240, a nominal minimum wake duration field 245, and the TWT wake interval field 250. AP may configure a TWT for receiving the trigger frame 210 to the STA through the TWT response element 205 of the beacon frame. The AP may set the TWT for the STA on the basis of the TWT parameter included in the TWT request element 200 transmitted by the STA; [0086, 0095]).
Regarding claim 2, Choi discloses measure a duration of each interval that the first STA is in the awake state on the first wireless communication link during a first observation period in accordance with the power management information carried in the one or more first packets; and determine the first LRM as a sum of the duration of each interval that the first STA is in the awake state on the first wireless communication link during the first observation period divided by a duration of the first observation period (if the wake duration indicator is set to ‘1’, the AP may set a duration for maintaining the awake state to the STA after the STA transitions to the awake state at the target transmission time on the basis of a nominal minimum wake duration field 335 included in a TWT response element 305. nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may include information regarding a time during which the STA transitioned to the awake state maintains the awake state to receive the trigger frame 310 at the target transmission time; [0123, 0131]).
Regarding claim 8, Choi discloses receive, via a second wireless communication link, one or more second packets carrying power management information indicating whether the first STA is in the awake state or the power save mode on the second wireless communication link (an STA (or TWT request STA, TWT scheduled STA) intending to operate in a power save mode may transmit to an AP (or TWT response STA, TWT scheduling STA) a frame (or TWT request frame) including the TWT request element; [0056].
control field 230 may include a power management (PM) mode field; [0078]),
the provisioning of the one or more resources being further in accordance with a second LRM associated with the power management information carried in the one or more second packets and indicating an average amount of time the first STA is in the awake state on the second wireless communication link (TWT may be a time resource configured to manage activity in a BSS. It may be defined to minimize an STA operation for the awake state by allowing the STA to operate at a different time on the basis of the TWT configuration; [0051].
STA may transmit information regarding the TWT pattern (or a TWT parameter for determining TWT) to the AP on the basis of the TWT request element 200. As a pattern of a TWT, a TWT pattern may be determined on the basis of the target wake time field 240, a nominal minimum wake duration field 245, and the TWT wake interval field 250. AP may configure a TWT for receiving the trigger frame 210 to the STA through the TWT response element 205 of the beacon frame. The AP may set the TWT for the STA on the basis of the TWT parameter included in the TWT request element 200 transmitted by the STA; [0086, 0095]).
Regarding claim 9, Choi discloses map the communication to the first wireless communication link, in lieu of the second wireless communication link, in accordance with the first LRM being greater than the second LRM by a threshold amount, the first wireless communication link and the second wireless communication link representing a primary link and a secondary link, respectively, associated with a multi-link communication with the first STA (A multi-channel may include a plurality of 20 MHz channels when one channel unit is 20 MHz. In the multi-channel allocation method, a primary channel rule is used to allocate a wider bandwidth to the UE. In case of using the primary channel rule, there is a restriction for allocating the wider bandwidth to the UE. Specifically, according to the primary channel rule, if a secondary channel adjacent to the primary channel is ‘busy’ since it is used in an overlapped BSS (OBSS), an STA cannot use the remaining channels other than the primary channel. Therefore, since the STA can transmit a frame only through the primary channel, frame transmission through the multi-channel is restricted. That is, the primary channel rule used for multi-channel allocation in the conventional WLAN system operates a wider bandwidth in the WLAN environment in which not many OBSSs exist, which may be a significant restriction when intending to obtain a high throughput; [0038]).
Regarding claim 10, Choi discloses wherein the at least one processor is further operable to cause the wireless communication device to: receive, from a network controller, control information indicating the threshold amount (if the wake duration indicator is set to ‘1’, the AP may set a duration for maintaining the awake state to the STA after the STA transitions to the awake state at the target transmission time on the basis of a nominal minimum wake duration field 335 included in a TWT response element 305. The STA may know whether the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 is omitted in the TWT response element 305 transmitted by the AP on the basis of the wake duration indicator. Specifically, if the wake duration indicator is 1, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may be included in the TWT response element 305, and if the wake duration indicator is 0, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may not be included in the TWT response element 305; [0123]).
Regarding claim 13, Choi discloses receive, via the first wireless communication link, one or more second packets carrying power management information indicating whether a second STA is in an awake state or a power save mode on the first wireless communication link (an STA (or TWT request STA, TWT scheduled STA) intending to operate in a power save mode may transmit to an AP (or TWT response STA, TWT scheduling STA) a frame (or TWT request frame) including the TWT request element; [0056].
control field 230 may include a power management (PM) mode field; [0078]),
the provisioning of the one or more resources being further in accordance with a second LRM associated with the power management information carried in the one or more second packets and indicating an average amount of time the second STA is in the awake state on the first wireless communication link (TWT may be a time resource configured to manage activity in a BSS. It may be defined to minimize an STA operation for the awake state by allowing the STA to operate at a different time on the basis of the TWT configuration; [0051].
STA may transmit information regarding the TWT pattern (or a TWT parameter for determining TWT) to the AP on the basis of the TWT request element 200. As a pattern of a TWT, a TWT pattern may be determined on the basis of the target wake time field 240, a nominal minimum wake duration field 245, and the TWT wake interval field 250. AP may configure a TWT for receiving the trigger frame 210 to the STA through the TWT response element 205 of the beacon frame. The AP may set the TWT for the STA on the basis of the TWT parameter included in the TWT request element 200 transmitted by the STA; [0086, 0095]).
Regarding claim 14, Choi discloses provision a first spatial stream to the first STA and a second spatial stream to the second STA in accordance with each of the first LRM and the second LRM being greater than a threshold value, the first spatial stream and the second spatial stream being provisioned for concurrent communication with a multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) group (When the uplink transmission is performed by each of the plurality of STAs on the spatial domain, a different space-time stream (or spatial stream) may be allocated to each of the plurality of STAs, and each of the plurality of STAs may transmit uplink data to the AP through the different space-time stream. A transmission method through the different spatial stream may be expressed by the term “UL MU MIMO transmission method”. DL MU PPDU format transmitted based on OFDMA by an AP is disclosed according to the embodiment of the present invention. A TWT response element may be transmitted to a plurality of STAs through a data field of the DL MU PPDU format. The AP may transmit a plurality of TWT response elements to the plurality of STAs through one DL MU PPDU; [0036, 0151]).
Regarding claim 15, Choi discloses receive, from a network controller, control information indicating the threshold value (if the wake duration indicator is set to ‘1’, the AP may set a duration for maintaining the awake state to the STA after the STA transitions to the awake state at the target transmission time on the basis of a nominal minimum wake duration field 335 included in a TWT response element 305. The STA may know whether the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 is omitted in the TWT response element 305 transmitted by the AP on the basis of the wake duration indicator. Specifically, if the wake duration indicator is 1, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may be included in the TWT response element 305, and if the wake duration indicator is 0, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may not be included in the TWT response element 305; [0123]).
Regarding claim 16, Choi discloses wherein the provisioning of the one or more resources is further in accordance with a time coherency metric (TCM) associated with the power management information carried in the one or more first packets and the power management information carried in the one or more second packets, the TCM indicating an average amount of time the first STA and the second STA are concurrently in the awake state on the first wireless communication link (Each of the target wake time field 325, the TWT group allocation field 330, the STA count field 375, the STA AID field 380, and nominal minimum wake duration field 335, the TWT wake interval field 340, or the like located after the control field 320 of the TWT element may include a plurality of sub-fields to include individual information for each of the plurality of STAs. For example, if the trigger frame is transmitted to an STA1, an STA2, and an STA3, the target wake time field 325 may include information regarding a target wake time for the STA1, a target wake time for the STA2, and a target wake time for the STA3. TWT group allocation field 330 may include information regarding an STA group for receiving the trigger frame on the basis of TWT (or for operating based on the same TWT). A plurality of STAs included in the STA group indicated by the TWT group allocation field 330 may transition to the awake stat to receive the trigger frame 310 from the AP at a time indicated by the target wake time field 325. If a group ID included in the TWT group allocation field 330 is a specific value (e.g., 0), all STAs may transition to the awake mode at a target transmission time to receive the trigger frame 310; [0126-0129]).
Regarding claim 17, Choi discloses wherein the provisioning of the first spatial stream and the second spatial stream is further in accordance with the TCM being greater than a threshold TCM value (nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may include information regarding a time during which the STA transitioned to the awake state maintains the awake state to receive the trigger frame 310 at the target transmission time. The STA transitioned to the awake state at the target transmission time may monitor the trigger frame 310 while maintaining the awake state during a duration configured by the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 of the AP. The STA may receive the trigger frame 310 during the configured duration, may transmit the uplink frame 315 including buffered unlink data in response to the trigger frame 310 through a UL MU PPDU (or on a UL MU PPDU), may receive an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the AP, and may transition to a doze state after the configured duration. If the configured duration is terminated, the STA may transition to the doze state without transmission of the UL MU PPDU even if the trigger frame 310 is received; [0131]).
Regarding claim 18, Choi discloses receive, from a network controller, control information indicating the threshold TCM value (if the wake duration indicator is set to ‘1’, the AP may set a duration for maintaining the awake state to the STA after the STA transitions to the awake state at the target transmission time on the basis of a nominal minimum wake duration field 335 included in a TWT response element 305. The STA may know whether the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 is omitted in the TWT response element 305 transmitted by the AP on the basis of the wake duration indicator. Specifically, if the wake duration indicator is 1, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may be included in the TWT response element 305, and if the wake duration indicator is 0, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may not be included in the TWT response element 305; [0123]).
Regarding claim 23, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 24, Choi discloses wherein the one or more resources include time, frequency, multi-user streams, memory, buffers, or processing resources (TWT may be a time resource configured to manage activity in a BSS. It may be defined to minimize an STA operation for the awake state by allowing the STA to operate at a different time on the basis of the TWT configuration; [0051]).
Regarding claim 25, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 16.
Regarding claim 27, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 14.
Regarding claim 28, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 15.
Regarding claim 29, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 25.
Regarding claim 30, Choi discloses wherein the one or more resources include time, frequency, multi-user streams, memory, buffers, or processing resources (TWT may be a time resource configured to manage activity in a BSS. It may be defined to minimize an STA operation for the awake state by allowing the STA to operate at a different time on the basis of the TWT configuration; [0051]).
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 6, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 20180132175) in view of Chitrakar et al. (US 20210360522).
Regarding claim 6, Choi discloses buffer data for transmission to the first STA in a local memory in accordance with the first LRM being greater than a threshold value, the local memory being disposed on a chip that includes physical layer (PHY) hardware associated with the transmission of the data (STA transitioned to the awake state at the target transmission time may monitor the trigger frame 310 while maintaining the awake state during a duration configured by the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 of the AP. The STA may receive the trigger frame 310 during the configured duration, may transmit the uplink frame 315 including buffered unlink data in response to the trigger frame 310 through a UL MU PPDU (or on a UL MU PPDU), may receive an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the AP, and may transition to a doze state after the configured duration; [0131]); and
Choi does not expressly disclose buffer the data for transmission to the first STA in a remote memory in accordance with the first LRM being less than or equal to the threshold value, the remote memory being external to the chip that includes the PHY hardware.
In an analogous art, Chitrakar discloses buffer the data for transmission to the first STA in a remote memory in accordance with the first LRM being less than or equal to the threshold value, the remote memory being external to the chip that includes the PHY hardware (using a MB TIM element and a MB PS-Poll frame and for the case where the AP operates separate BSSs on different bands, in which case the AP may buffer data for the STAs in each BSS (band) independent from the other BSSs (band). Although it is possible for the AP to indicate the Buffered Units (BUs) for STAs through the TIM element carried in Beacon frames transmitted on respective band, as mentioned earlier, it is advantageous for non-AP STAs to only listen to the Beacon frames transmitted on the Primary BSS (band) to save power; [0099]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Chitrakar into the system of Choi in order to enable power saving for non-access point station (STAs) only as needed with minimal changes to baseline behavior on each band (Chitrakar; [0067]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Choi and Chitrakar, particularly Choi discloses wherein the at least one processor is further operable to cause the wireless communication device to: receive, from a network controller, control information indicating the threshold value (if the wake duration indicator is set to ‘1’, the AP may set a duration for maintaining the awake state to the STA after the STA transitions to the awake state at the target transmission time on the basis of a nominal minimum wake duration field 335 included in a TWT response element 305. The STA may know whether the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 is omitted in the TWT response element 305 transmitted by the AP on the basis of the wake duration indicator. Specifically, if the wake duration indicator is 1, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may be included in the TWT response element 305, and if the wake duration indicator is 0, the nominal minimum wake duration field 335 may not be included in the TWT response element 305; [0123]).
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 20180132175) in view of Chitrakar et al. (US 20240098712).
Regarding claim 22, Choi does not expressly disclose wherein, to provision the one or more resources, the at least one processor is further operable to cause the wireless communication device to: map data associated with a first flow priority to a first packet queue for transmission to the first STA; map data associated with a second flow priority to a second packet queue for transmission to the second STA; and remap at least some of the data associated with the first flow priority to the second packet queue in accordance with the first packet queue storing at least a threshold amount of data and the second LRM being less than or equal to the first LRM.
In an analogous art, Chitrakar discloses wherein, to provision the one or more resources, the at least one processor is further operable to cause the wireless communication device to: map data associated with a first flow priority to a first packet queue for transmission to the first STA; map data associated with a second flow priority to a second packet queue for transmission to the second STA (AP may also request for Sub-SP (i.e. a specific time-slot) within a Coordinated SP. The Sub-SP may indicate a smaller period of time during which the requesting AP has a need for quasi-guaranteed channel access (for example for low latency traffic that is highly sensitive to jitters). Referring to FIG. 20, in TWT negotiations for C-TDMA MAP Coordinated SP or for Coordinated SPs for Prioritized traffic, the TWT Setup frames i.e. such as TWT Element 2000 of FIG. 20 may also carry the information related to the desired/assigned sub-SP (within the Coordinated SP) for the requesting AP during C-OFDMA MAP transmissions: [0092] If set, Sub-SP Non-Negotiable field 2002 indicates that the requested Sub-SP start time cannot be changed. [0093] Sub-SP Start Offset field 2004 is used to signal the time offset from the SP Start time till the start of the requested/assigned Sub-SP. [0094] Sub-SP Duration field 2006 is used to signal the duration of the requested/assigned sub-SP. [0095] Sub-SP Intervals field 2008 indicates the time interval between consecutive Sub-SPs if the Sub-SP are also periodic. If 11be decides not to allow mixing of C-OFDMA and C-TDMA transmission within the same MAP Shared TXOP, it is also possible that the TWT Channel and the Extended TWT Channel fields are repurposed as the Sub-SP Start Offset field and Sub-SP Duration field when the Coordinated SP Type is C-TDMA, or if the Coordinated SP Type is reserved for Prioritized traffic; [0091-0096]); and
remap at least some of the data associated with the first flow priority to the second packet queue in accordance with the first packet queue storing at least a threshold amount of data and the second LRM being less than or equal to the first LRM (information exchange between the APs may be over-the-air (in-band) or may be over the backhaul link (wired/wireless) (out of band). Enhanced TWT may be as defined in Singapore patent application no. 10202012139Q. While the coordination can be for any TWT SP, coordination of Enhanced TWT may bear more benefit by ensuring that the Prioritized traffics (e.g. Low Latency traffic) of OBSS do not contend for the channel at the same time. An AP may also request information of another AP's Service Period (AP Coordinated SPs, or Scheduled SPs (both broadcast and individual SPs) of the AP's STAs). For example, an AP can request another AP for information of its Coordinated SPs, which it can use to request to join Coordinated SPs of interest. Alternatively, an AP can also request another AP for information of the enhanced TWT SPs for prioritized traffic and adjust its own enhanced TWT for prioritized SPs, if needed, such that the SPs of the two SPs do not overlap; [0101-0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Chitrakar into the system of Choi in order in order to improve throughput over 1 lax HE WLAN for cell-edge STAs (Chitrakar; [0003]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 26 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Liu et al. (US 20250081097), “MULTI-LINK HIBERNATION MODE FOR WLAN.”
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
