CTNF 18/881,266 CTNF 92003 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. This communication is in response to the application filed on 01/04/2025. 12-151-10 AIA 12-51-10 Claim s 16 and 9-20 are pending and rejected. Claims 7-8 have been canceled. Information Disclosure Statement 06-52 The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/04/2025 was filed. The submission 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 § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 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. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-6 and 9-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Asterjadhi et al. (US 20230362822 A1), hereafter Asterjadhi in view of Lu et al. (US 20240179739 A1), hereafter Lu . Regarding claim 1 , Asterjadhi teaches a communication method comprising: in response to obtaining, by a multi connection station device Non-AP STA, a first transmission opportunity (TXOP) in a first Non-simultaneous Transmit and Receive (NSTR) connection of a NSTR connection pair ([0038], fig. 1, a communication link that facilitates transmission from the AP 104 to one or more of the STAs 106 may be referred to as a downlink (DL) 108, and a communication link that facilitates transmission from one or more of the STAs 106 to the AP 104 may be referred to as an uplink (UL) 110 (connection pair) ) , and determining, by the Non-AP STA, that the first TXOP is overlapped with a restricted target wake time service period (rTWT SP) of a NSTR connection, performing, by the Non-AP STA, a random backoff mechanism in a -the first NSTR connection ([0098] Similar considerations may apply to a transmission opportunity (TXOP) obtained prior to a TWT service period boundary. For example, a TXOP may be truncated (e.g., the TXOP may be ended) at or before (a random backoff mechanism) a TWT service period boundary (e.g., so the STA does not continue to transmit after the boundary and thereby prevent other devices from gaining access to the wireless communication medium after the boundary)) , wherein the first NSTR connection is configured for the Non-AP STA to transmit and receive the NSTR connection pair non-simultaneously ([0043] the use of TWT scheduling may enable the BSS (e.g., an AP) to manage traffic more efficiently (e.g., by preventing communication collisions between STAs, by prioritizing traffic, and so on)) . Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach non-simultaneously. Lu teaches non-simultaneously ([0070] an operation mechanism of a Non Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (NSTR) Access Point multi-link device (AP MLD) is proposed and instantiated into a soft AP MLD). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention made to include in the Asterjadhi disclosure, the communication includes a connection fair non-simultaneously, as taught by Lu. One would be motivated to do so that the NSTR-based interference or collision is prevented from occurring on transmission of primary and secondary links when the first Non-AP STA and the second Non-AP STA affiliated to the Non-AP MLD simultaneously transmit at least one PPDU in the first TXOP and the second TXOP respectively. Regarding claims 2, 11, and 16 , Asterjadhi and Lu teach all limitations of parent claims 1, 9, and 10, wherein Asterjadhi further teaches the performing the random backoff mechanism in the first NSTR connection comprises: requesting a second TXOP after the rTWT SP is ended according to duration information of the rTWT SP ([0122] the AP and the STA B may negotiate to determine the parameters to use for a second TWT schedule. For example, the AP 902 and the STA B 906 may select a start time of the first service period for the second TWT schedule, a duration of each service period for the second TWT schedule, a periodicity of the service periods, and other parameters, if applicable). Regarding claims 3, 12, and 17 , Asterjadhi and Lu teach all limitations of parent claims 1, 9, and 10, Asterjadhi further teaches: in response to determining, by the Non-AP STA, that the rTWT SP is an rTWT SP of the first NSTR connection, determining, by the Non-AP STA, not to transmit data in the first TXOP ([0087] a STA may be expected to transmit within a particular scheduled service period of a TWT schedule and not transmit outside of that scheduled service period) . Regarding claims 4, 13, and 18 , Asterjadhi and Lu teach all limitations of parent claims 1, 9, and 10, Asterjadhi further teaches: in response to determining, by the Non-AP STA, that the rTWT SP is an rTWT SP of a second NSTR connection, obtaining, by the Non-AP STA, that a reduce neighbor report (RNR) information element sent by an access point multi-link device (AP MLD) associated with the Non-AP STA ([0123] the beacon may include a first set of parameters for the first TWT schedule and a second set of parameters for the second TWT schedule. As discussed herein, each parameter set may include usage information and other information for a corresponding TWT schedule) ; and determining, by the Non-AP STA, whether the first TXOP is overlapped with the rTWT SP of the second NSTR connection according to a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) offset value in the RNR information element ([0140] the scheduling circuitry may be configured to elect to request a new TWT schedule better fits the traffic pattern of the first wireless communication device) . Regarding claims 5, 14, and 19 , Asterjadhi and Lu teach all limitations of parent claims 1, 9, and 10, Lu further teaches wherein determining that the first TXOP is overlapped with the rTWT SP of the NSTR connection comprises: determining that the first TXOP is partial or fully overlapped with the rTWT SP of the NSTR connection ([0095] a duration of the first TXOP completely overlaps with a duration of the second TXOP in a time domain; or, the duration of the first TXOP partially overlaps with the duration of the second TXOP in the time domain) . It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention made to include in the Asterjadhi disclosure, a completely or partial overlaps of the first TXOP is determined, as taught by Lu. One would be motivated to do so that the NSTR-based interference or collision is prevented from occurring on transmission of primary and secondary links when the first Non-AP STA and the second Non-AP STA affiliated to the Non-AP MLD simultaneously transmit at least one PPDU in the first TXOP and the second TXOP respectively. Regarding claims 6, 15, and 20 , Asterjadhi and Lu teach all limitations of parent claims 1, 9, and 10, wherein Lu further teaches a service transmitted by the first NSTR connection is a non-low-latency service ([0235] the end time of the TXOP on the secondary link is later than the end time of the TXOP on the primary link, a deviation between the two end times is less than or equal to a threshold, and the threshold is set as a synchronous medium access delay threshold) . It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention made to include in the Asterjadhi disclosure, connection is the non-low latency service, as taught by Lu. One would be motivated to do so that the NSTR-based interference or collision is prevented from occurring on transmission of primary and secondary links when the first Non-AP STA and the second Non-AP STA affiliated to the Non-AP MLD simultaneously transmit at least one PPDU in the first TXOP and the second TXOP respectively. Regarding claim 9 , Asterjadhi teaches an electronic device, comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and executable on the processor, wherein when the program is executed by the processor, the electronic device performs a communication method ([0129] The bus communicatively couples together various circuits including one or more processors, a memory, and computer-readable media) , comprising: in response to obtaining, by a multi connection station device Non-AP STA, a first TXOP in a first NSTR connection of a NSTR connection pair ([0038], fig. 1, a communication link that facilitates transmission from the AP 104 to one or more of the STAs 106 may be referred to as a downlink (DL) 108, and a communication link that facilitates transmission from one or more of the STAs 106 to the AP 104 may be referred to as an uplink (UL) 110 (connection pair) ) , and determining, by the Non-AP STA, that the first TXOP is overlapped with a rTWT SP of a NSTR connection, performing, by the Non-AP STA, a random backoff mechanism in the first NSTR connection ([0098] Similar considerations may apply to a transmission opportunity (TXOP) obtained prior to a TWT service period boundary. For example, a TXOP may be truncated (e.g., the TXOP may be ended) at or before (a random backoff mechanism) a TWT service period boundary (e.g., so the STA does not continue to transmit after the boundary and thereby prevent other devices from gaining access to the wireless communication medium after the boundary)) , wherein the first NSTR connection is configured for the Non-AP STA to transmit and receive the NSTR connection pair non-simultaneously ([0043] the use of TWT scheduling may enable the BSS (e.g., an AP) to manage traffic more efficiently (e.g., by preventing communication collisions between STAs, by prioritizing traffic, and so on)) . Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach non-simultaneously. Quan teaches non-simultaneously ([0043] the use of TWT scheduling may enable the BSS (e.g., an AP) to manage traffic more efficiently (e.g., by preventing communication collisions between STAs, by prioritizing traffic, and so on)). Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach non-simultaneously. Quan teaches non-simultaneously ([0070] an operation mechanism of a Non Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (NSTR) Access Point multi-link device (AP MLD) is proposed and instantiated into a soft AP MLD). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention made to include in the Asterjadhi disclosure, the communication includes a connection fair non-simultaneously, as taught by Lu. One would be motivated to do so that the NSTR-based interference or collision is prevented from occurring on transmission of primary and secondary links when the first Non-AP STA and the second Non-AP STA affiliated to the Non-AP MLD simultaneously transmit at least one PPDU in the first TXOP and the second TXOP respectively. Regarding claim 10 , Asterjadhi teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, wherein when the computer program is executed by a processor, the processor performs a communication method ([0129] The bus communicatively couples together various circuits including one or more processors, a memory, and computer-readable media) , comprising: in response to obtaining, by a multi connection station device Non-AP STA, a first TXOP in a first NSTR connection of a NSTR connection pair ([0038], fig. 1, a communication link that facilitates transmission from the AP 104 to one or more of the STAs 106 may be referred to as a downlink (DL) 108, and a communication link that facilitates transmission from one or more of the STAs 106 to the AP 104 may be referred to as an uplink (UL) 110 (connection pair) ) , and determining, by the Non-AP STA, that the first TXOP is overlapped with a rTWT SP of a NSTR connection, performing, by the Non-AP STA, a random backoff mechanism in the first NSTR connection ([0098] Similar considerations may apply to a transmission opportunity (TXOP) obtained prior to a TWT service period boundary. For example, a TXOP may be truncated (e.g., the TXOP may be ended) at or before (a random backoff mechanism) a TWT service period boundary (e.g., so the STA does not continue to transmit after the boundary and thereby prevent other devices from gaining access to the wireless communication medium after the boundary)) , wherein the first NSTR connection is configured for the Non-AP STA to transmit and receive the NSTR connection pair non-simultaneously ([0043] the use of TWT scheduling may enable the BSS (e.g., an AP) to manage traffic more efficiently (e.g., by preventing communication collisions between STAs, by prioritizing traffic, and so on)) . Asterjadhi does not explicitly teach non-simultaneously. Quan teaches non-simultaneously ([0070] an operation mechanism of a Non Simultaneous Transmit and Receive (NSTR) Access Point multi-link device (AP MLD) is proposed and instantiated into a soft AP MLD). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention made to include in the Asterjadhi disclosure, the communication includes a connection fair non-simultaneously, as taught by Lu. One would be motivated to do so that the NSTR-based interference or collision is prevented from occurring on transmission of primary and secondary links when the first Non-AP STA and the second Non-AP STA affiliated to the Non-AP MLD simultaneously transmit at least one PPDU in the first TXOP and the second TXOP respectively . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Zhouh (US 20170064741 A1) and Quan (US 20240314860 A1). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANH NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-0657. The examiner can normally be reached M-F. 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For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /ANH NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 2 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 3 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 4 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 5 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 6 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 7 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 8 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 9 Art Unit: 2458 Application/Control Number: 18/881,266 Page 10 Art Unit: 2458
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