DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are currently pending in the application and have been examined.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 09/30/2024, 12/27/2024 and 02/28/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mahajan et al. (US-20200322111), hereinafter Mahajan, in view of BEIJING SAMSUNG TELECOM R&D CENTER et al. (CN- 106160983), hereinafter SAMSUNG.
Claim 1:
Mahajan teaches a wireless communication method, comprising: generating, by a receiving device, a feedback frame in response to receiving of an aggregated frame, wherein the feedback frame comprises first indication information and second indication information, the first indication information indicates a window size of a feedback window used to transmit the feedback frame, and sending, by the receiving device, the feedback frame to a sending device in the feedback window in that Mahajan discloses dynamic flow control in AMPDU aggregation in wireless communications, and specifically discloses the following technical features (see description, paragraphs 21-24): initially, an AP 220 and an STA 210 may negotiate an initial block-ACK window size. The AP 220 may send aggregated MPDUs to the STA 210, with an AMPDU count being 64. Then, the STA 210 may determine to adjust the AMPDU aggregation and, accordingly, the STA 210 may send a first block-ACK frame to the AP 220 with a value in a reserved field in the first block-ACK frame indicating 16 to decrease the AMPDU count from 64 to 16. A receiving entity may notify a transmitting entity a new AMPDU count, such as the BA window size, by using a "Reserved" field in the block-ACK frame (i.e. the receiving device generating a feedback frame in response to the reception of an aggregation frame, the feedback frame comprising first indication information, the first indication information indicating the window size of a feedback window which
is used to transmit the feedback frame; and the receiving device sending, on the feedback window, the feedback frame to a sending device). Mahajan also teaches the second indication information indicates receiving status information of receiving the aggregated frame by the receiving device; and sending, by the receiving device, the feedback frame to a sending device in the feedback window in that block-ACK frame including a field for feeding back receiving state information is a function of an ACK frame itself.
Mahajan does not explicitly teach the window size is determined based on configuration information associated with the feedback window. However, SAMSUNG teaches in an analogous art the following technical features (see description, paragraph 18): according to an uplink downlink assignment indicator (UL DAI) acquired from an uplink grant, the number of PDSCH subframes received in an HARQ-ACK bundling window, and the number of PDCCH/EPDCCH subframes indicating downlink semi-persistent scheduling release, or according to the number or transmission modes of all the configured cells, a UE determines the number of bits of HARQ-ACK feedback information to be transmitted by respective cells configured for the UE in a PUSCH or PUCCH of a current uplink subframe.. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing data of the claimed invention for Mahajan to use SAMSUNG’s technique of determining the number of bits of feedback information. The artisan would be motivated to do so because SAMSUNG provides the technical motivation of how to determine the number of bits of feedback information, and it would have readily occurred to a person skilled in the art to apply same to Mahajan to further solve the technical problem.
Claims 8, 12, 13 and 14:
These claims recite similar limitations as claim 1 and are rejected in like.
Claim 2:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the generating the feedback frame comprises: determining a bit value corresponding to the window size; and generating the first indication information of the feedback frame based on the bit value. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 3:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches receiving downlink control information; obtaining, from the downlink control information, an indication field associated with a feedback type of the feedback frame; and determining the configuration information based on the indication field associated with the feedback type. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 4:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches a data amount of the feedback frame transmitted in the feedback window is 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 bits. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 5:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the receiving the status information is indicated in a variable-length content field comprised in the second indication information. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 6:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the aggregated frame comprises a plurality of aggregated medium access control protocol data units. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 7:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the feedback frame comprises a block acknowledgment frame. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 9:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches determining, based on an attribute of the aggregated frame, the configuration information associated with the feedback window; determining, based on the configuration information, an indication field that is in downlink control information and that is associated with a feedback type of the feedback frame; and sending the downlink control information to the receiving device. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 10:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the aggregated frame comprises a plurality of aggregated medium access control protocol data units. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 11:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the feedback frame comprises a block acknowledgment frame. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 15:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches in generating the feedback frame, the processor is further configured to: determine a bit value corresponding to the window size; and generate the first indication information of the feedback frame based on the bit value. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 16:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the processor is further configured to: receive downlink control information; obtain, from the downlink control information, an indication field associated with a feedback type of the feedback frame; and determine the configuration information based on the indication field associated with the feedback type. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 17:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches a data amount of the feedback frame transmitted in the feedback window is 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, or 512 bits. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 18:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the receiving the status information is indicated in a variable-length content field comprised in the second indication information. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 19:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the aggregated frame comprises a plurality of aggregated medium access control protocol data units. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Claim 20:
Mahajan in view of SAMSUNG teaches the feedback frame comprises a block acknowledgment frame. (Mahajan, paragraphs 21-24; SAMSUNG, paragraph 18).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kakani et al. (US 20060018332) teaches techniques which describe increased data throughput by aggregating block acknowledgements. These embodiments provide a single block acknowledgement for multiple traffic identifiers in data communication with a communication station. One method includes providing a multiple start sequence number corresponding to each traffic identifier of a plurality of traffic identifiers and providing a bit map corresponding to each multiple start sequence number. The bit map indicates a block acknowledgement of packets corresponding to one traffic identifier of the plurality of traffic identifiers. (Abstract).
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/JOHN J TABONE JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2111 01/23/2026