DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority as a 371 of PCT/JP2022/017874 filed 4/14/2026 is acknowledged.
Preliminary Amendment filed 10/9/2024 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-3, 6, and 7 have been amended.
Claims 1-8 remain pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/9/2024 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 § 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.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
In independent claims 1, 7, and 8, it is unclear how the step of “starting transmission” after an idle state is detected and maintained “when the standby time elapses” can be performed prior to the subsequent step of “setting the standby time in accordance with the rule”. Claims 2-6 are rejected based on dependence from claim 1.
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 1-3, 5, 7, and 8 (as best understood) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuda et al. (US20150139106A1), hereafter Masuda, in view of Yeh et al. (US20150009881A1), hereafter Yeh.
Regarding claims 1, 7, and 8,
Masuda discloses a wireless communication method (Figs. 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22) in a system (Fig. 1, system A) including/using a wireless communication device (Fig. 1, station 1) comprising a plurality of wireless communication modules that uses channels interfering (i.e. colliding) with each other (Fig. 2, first/second wireless communication portions 101a/b and antennas 100a/b); and a control circuit that issues a command of a rule for setting a standby time to each of the plurality of wireless communication modules (Fig. 2, controlling random backoff variable determining portion 115; Fig. 5, S6-7; paragraphs 94-105; random backoff time).
Masuda further discloses the wireless communication includes starting transmission of a packet in a case where, after an idle state is detected by carrier sensing, the idle state is maintained when the standby time elapses (Fig. 8, S103-104; paragraph 2, 84; perform carrier sense, enter an idle state) and setting the standby time in accordance with the rule (Fig. 8, S106-107; configuring random backoff counter), and wherein a different rule is issued as the command to each of the plurality of wireless communication modules (paragraph 23, 92; different values of candidates for a backoff value of a plurality of groups).
Masuda discloses each of the plurality of wireless communication modules is configured to belong to a different communication group and perform wireless communication with a different communication device (Fig. 18; paragraphs 15, 132, ; expected value of a set of candidates of backoff values of each group of a plurality of groups to which terminals belong) but fails to expressly disclose to relay a packet between a communication device belonging to one communication group and a communication device belonging to another communication group.
Yeh discloses analogous art (Fig. 8-12; paragraph 120-129; transmissions based on channel status during random backoff after IFS; ) including to relay a packet between a communication device belonging to one communication group and a communication device belonging to another communication group (Fig. 2, 17-22; paragraph 67-78; base station relays information between different groups).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Masuda to relay a packet between a communication device belonging to one communication group and a communication device belonging to another communication group, as shown by Yeh, thereby enabling public safety information to be relayed to some terminals in a network environment out of a cell coverage of a base station that cannot reach those terminals.
Regarding claim 2,
The combination of Masuda and Yeh discloses the setting the standby time includes selecting a random backoff time by randomly selecting a numerical value from a population (i.e. contention window range) and setting the standby time so as to include the random backoff time, wherein the rule includes specification of the population, and the control circuit issues the command of the rule such that a command of a different population is issued to each of the plurality of wireless communication modules (paragraph 2, 3, 77-92, 98-107; contention window range based on number of terminals and antennas in each group).
Regarding claims 3 and 5,
The combination of Masuda and Yeh discloses the setting the standby time includes selecting a random backoff time by randomly selecting a numerical value (i.e. random backoff variable; Masuda: paragraph 17-21); calculating a fixed time based on a parameter (Masuda: DIFS/SIFS; Fig. 9, 17, 23; paragraph 2, 85-88, 114-122, 142-150), the fixed time includes a pause time (i.e. SIFS) provided after end of transmission and the parameter is the pause time (Fig. 12; paragraph 116-121), and setting the standby time so as to include the random backoff time and the fixed time, and wherein the rule includes specification of the parameter, and the control circuit issues the command of the rule such that a command of a different parameter is issued to each of the plurality of wireless communication modules (Masuda: paragraph 2, 3, 77-92, 98-107; contention window range based on number of terminals and antennas in each group; Yeh: Fig. 9, 12; paragraph 116-121, 129; DIFS/SIFS).
Claim 4 (as best understood) is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuda and Yeh as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Xin et al. (US20220007417A1), hereafter Xin.
Regarding claim 4,
The combination of Masuda and Yeh does not expressly discloses an AIFS time calculated as SIFS time + AIFSN * slot time.
Xin discloses analogous art (Abstract; Fig. 1, 7-38; i.e. paragraph 98) including AIFS time calculated as SIFS time + AIFSN * slot time (paragraph 67-69, 101, 121-133; AIFS time of the Access Category per slot time).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Masuda and Yeh by providing an AIFS time calculated as SIFS time + AIFSN * slot time, as shown by Xin, thereby avoiding in-device coexistence interference when transmission occur on multiple links simultaneously.
Claim 6 (as best understood) is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Masuda and Yeh as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Naka et al. (US20080279210A1), hereafter Naka.
Regarding claim 6,
The combination of Masuda and Yeh discloses a shorter standby time (Yeh: paragraph 121; SIFS shorter than DIFS) but does not expressly disclose to sequentially switch a preferential treatment setting target having a shorter standby time than another wireless communication module between the plurality of wireless communication modules.
Naka discloses analogous art (Fig. 1-7; backoff value within CW based on AIFS value) including to sequentially switch a preferential treatment setting target having a shorter standby time than another wireless communication module between the plurality of wireless communication modules (Fig. 10; paragraphs 76-84; AIFS set at a smaller value corresponding to elapsed time so that the possibility is high of preferential transmission).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Masuda and Yeh to sequentially switch a preferential treatment setting target having a shorter standby time than another wireless communication module between the plurality of wireless communication modules, as shown by Naka, thereby preferentially transmitting data to decrease the possibility of data being discarded by timeout.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jeong et al. (US20160183162A1); Transmitting and Receiving Data in Wireless LAN System (Title); para 141, 184; group relay; random backoff during DIFS.
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/GREGORY B SEFCHECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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