DETALED 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
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.
(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.
Claims 15-16, 18, 20-24, 26 and 28-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Adachi et al. (US 2019/0268914).
Regarding claim 15, Adachi teaches a first communication apparatus (Paragraphs [0040]; [0083] describes communication apparatus),
comprising: control circuitry, which, in operation, generates a control signal including a first information indicating whether or not a transmission to the first communication apparatus is performed (Paragraphs [0052]; [0054]; [0074]; [0128]-[0129]; [0131]; [0133]-[0134] describes the base station (first communication apparatus) generates a control signal (the Multi-STA BA frame) that carries a bit/bitmap (the first information) indicating per terminal whether or not that terminal’s transmission to the base station was performed);
and transmission circuitry, which, in operation, transmits the control signal to a second communication apparatus (Paragraphs [0057]; [0128]; [0135] describes the base station transmission circuitry transmitting the control signal (Multi-STA BA frame 502) to the terminals (e.g., terminals 2, 4, 5)).
Regarding claim 16, Adachi teaches wherein the control signal includes a second information relating to a time resource of Transmission Opportunity (TXOP) (Paragraphs [0075]-[0076]; [0084]; [0091]-[0092]; [0097] describes transmits the Multi-STA BA frame as part of maintaining or continuing its acquired TXOP for the burst of frame exchanges with the terminals and describing SIFS based continuous exchange after TXOP, the duration or ID field carried in that control signal specifies the reserved time resource associated with the TXOP).
Regarding claim 18, Adachi teaches wherein the transmission to the first communication apparatus is a response signal to the control signal (Paragraphs [0126]; [0223]-[0224] describes uplink data transmissions to the base stations are triggered by and sent as responses to a preceding trigger-frame-type control signal from the base station).
Regarding claim 20, Adachi teaches wherein the control signal is transmitted in User info field of Trigger frame (Paragraphs [0095]-[0097]; [0104] describes the control signal is transmitted in User info field of Trigger frame).
Regarding claim 21, Adachi teaches comprising: a receiver, which, in operation, receives the transmission to the first communication apparatus (Paragraphs [0054]-[0056]; [0062]; [0073] describes the base station’s reception processor receives the uplink data frames transmitted by the terminals to the base station).
Regarding claim 22, Adachi teaches wherein the control signal is transmitted separately from a capability information indicating whether or not an operation relating to the transmission to the first communication apparatus is supported (Paragraphs [0050]; [0066]; [0069]; [0080]; [0129] describes capability information indicating support for UL-OFDMA transmission to the base station carried in management frames such as the association request, Beacon and probe response frames and a control signal).
Claims 23, 31 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 15 respectively.
Claim 24 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 16 respectively.
Claim 26 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 18 respectively.
Claim 28 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 20 respectively.
Claim 29 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 21 respectively.
Claim 30 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 22 respectively.
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.
Claim(s) 17, 19, 25 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adachi in view of Tian et al. (US 2019/0261210).
Regarding claim 17, Adachi doesn’t teach wherein the control signal includes a second information relating to a time resource of Transmission Opportunity (TXOP), and data is transmitted from the second communication apparatus to a third communication apparatus based on the second information.
However, in analogous art Tian teaches wherein the control signal includes a second information relating to a time resource of Transmission Opportunity (TXOP), and data is transmitted from the second communication apparatus to a third communication apparatus based on the second information (Paragraphs [0067]; [0071]; [0073]; [0078]-[0079] describes data transmitted from the second communication apparatus to a third communication apparatus based on the second information).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to incorporate the teachings of Adachi a trigger frame that identifies multiple frequency components for uplink OFDMA random access, then has each terminal decide whether it may respond based on a random value and the number of open resources. into the combination of Tian, the base station changes its AUL behavior and contention-window update rule based on what other traffic is scheduled in the TxOP. This is the main rule set that changes base-station behavior by TxOP traffic mix (Tian, Paragraphs [0068]-[0072]).
Regarding claim 19, Adachi in view of Tian wherein the control signal is used for Coordinated-Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) (Paragraphs [0003]; [0025]; [0046]; [0048]; [0050] describes TDMA as an applicable multiple-access format a coordinated resource partitioning framework dividing time into intervals and allocating them among multiple network operating entities via control signlaing and the base station’s TXOP control signals implementing this same coordinated time-slot allocation for served UES ).
Claim 25 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 17 respectively.
Claim 27 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 19 respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEHERET WOLDEGEBREAL KIDANE whose telephone number is (571)270-3642. The examiner can normally be reached M-F8:30-5.
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/M.W.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/KAN YUEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
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