DETAILED 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 .
This is a NON-FINAL OFFICE ACTION in response to the present Application filed 10/07/2024. Claims 1-10 are pending in the Application, of which Claims 1 and 6 are independent.
Continuity/ Priority Information
The present Application 18908761 filed 10/07/2024 claims foreign priority to CHINA, Application 202311481803.9, filed 11/08/2023 and Application 202410217453.3, filed 02/27/2024. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/08/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS has been considered by the examiner.
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.
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Turner et al. (Pub. No. US 20160294505) Pub. Date: 2016-10-06.
Regarding independent Claims 1 and 6, Turner discloses methods for data rate adaptation in a wireless transmitter, comprising:
An adaptive data rate method of a communication device, [0058] FIG. 1 illustrates a WiFi® network, where a source node 12 generates data packets such Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) packets containing video or audio content to be streamed wirelessly. On receiving the streamed content the receiving devices 16 respond to the source node 12 with secondary information such as Acknowledge messages and Receiver's Reports.
the communication device comprising a controller and a transceiver coupled to each other, the controller increasing an initial data rate to generate a test data rate; [0075] FIG. 4 illustrates a system 40 that may be employed in the source node 12 . [0076] As can be seen, the system 40 includes a packet generator 42, which generates data packets, e.g. RTP packets containing encoded audio or video data to be transmitted wirelessly to a remote receiving device. The packet generator 42 includes a control input by means of which the rate at which data packets are generated and encoded by the packet generator 42 can be adjusted, e.g. by causing the packet generator 42 to change the data rate of the codec, or, where appropriate, to select a different one of the plurality of codecs.
the transceiver transmitting a test packet according to the test data rate, a packet length of the test packet being less than a maximum packet length of a data packet; [0077] The packet generator 42 outputs generated packets to a packet queue 44, where the packets are queued for transmission by a wireless transmit/receive stage 46. [0078] The wireless transmit/receive stage 46 transmits the packets in turn. As indicated above, the next packet in the packet queue 44 is not transmitted until either a MAC layer Acknowledgement for the currently transmitted packet has been received, or the current packet is dropped as a result of a threshold for the maximum number of re-send attempts being reached.
the controller selecting one from the initial data rate and the test data rate as a selected data rate according to a transmission result of the test packet; and the transceiver transmitting the data packet according to the selected data rate.
[0079] A timer 48 is also provided, to measure a predetermined time period. If the number of un-transmitted packets in the packet queue 42 at the end of the predetermined time period meets a predetermined threshold, the rate adaptor 50 outputs a signal to the packet generator 42, to adjust the rate at which data packets are generated for transmission. The packet generator 42 then generates a new set of packets for transmission at the new rate.
[0080] Thus, a signal is output by the rate adaptor 50 to the packet generator 42, to adjust the rate at which data packets are generated for transmission, e.g. by causing the packet generator 42 to change the data rate of the codec, or, where appropriate, to select an alternative one of the plurality of codecs having a lower data rate.
Regarding Claims 2, 7, Turner discloses if the transmission of the test packet is successful, the controller selecting the test data rate as the selected data rate. [0020] Receiving at the wireless transmitter an application layer acknowledgement from a receiving device that a data packet has been received; and based on information associated with the application layer acknowledgement, adjusting the data rate at which data packets are generated for transmission by the wireless transmitter.
Regarding Claims 3, 8, Turner discloses if the transmission of the test packet fails, the controller selecting the initial data rate as the selected data rate. [0023] The information associated with the application layer acknowledgement may comprise an indication of the proportion of the data packets received by the receiving device that were re-transmissions at the MAC layer of data packets that were previously not successfully received by the receiving device.
Regarding Claims 4, 10, Turner discloses wherein the test packet is a null packet. [0062] As can be seen from FIG. 3, which schematically illustrates an IEEE 802.11 MAC (medium access control) layer message, the MAC layer message 30 includes a contention window 32, a preamble 34, data 36 and an acknowledge 38.
Regarding Claim 5, 9, Turner discloses the controller increasing the initial data rate according to a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) rate of the communication device to generate the test data rate, and if the transmission of the test packet fails, the controller reducing the test data rate. See, Abstract, the transmitter (12) monitors the number of data packets that cannot be transmitted in a given time period, and adjusts the data rate used for generation of data packets for transmission in accordance with the number of packets that remain un-transmitted at the end of the given time period. In another method, the transmitter (12) uses information associated with or derived from Acknowledgements received from a receiving device to determine whether an adjustment to the data rate used for generation of data packets for transmission is required.
[0117] FIG. 6 A bandwidth estimate 90 can be generated based on the refined transmission rate prediction, and this bandwidth estimate 90 can be used to adjust the rate at which data packets to be transmitted onto the network are generated by a packet generator 92 such as an audio/video codec, to increase, decrease or maintain, as appropriate, the rate of generation of data for transmission onto the network.
Prior Art References Cited
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See References Cited on PTO-892 form.
Qian; Feng et al. (US 20090319854) [0031] The transmitting station may utilize such packet quality indication (PQI) information to determine, for example, whether to increase (or decrease) data rates and coding schemes to more efficiently use the channel. However, most embodiments described herein include only a single ACK state of the PQI, and use PQI information to choose between a plurality of alternative transmissions when a packet has been negatively acknowledged.
Bajpai; Parimal et al. (US 20100232437) See, Abstract. A status packet is transmitted from the second node to the first node, wherein the status packet includes an indication of each of the data packets that were not successfully received. In response to receiving the status packet at the first node, the data packets that were not successfully received at the second node are retransmitted from the first node to the second node in response to receiving the status packet.
Vermani; Sameer et al. (U.S. Patent No. 9,462,575) The method 900 of FIG. 9 may enable HARQ during data transmission to selectively decrement the code rate until transmission is successful. Selectively decrementing the code rate may result in a reduced data rate (e.g., 1.5-1.625 Mbps) of transmission as compared to the legacy data rate (e.g., 6-6.5 Mbps) of a legacy data packet. The reduced data rate may improve a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the data packet 200 during transmission over the 802.11 wireless network.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES C KERVEROS whose telephone number is (571)272-3824. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MARK FEATHERSTONE can be reached at (571) 270-3750. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAMES C KERVEROS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2111
Date: March 13, 2026
Non-Final Rejection 20260304
JAMES C. KERVEROS
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2111
James.Kerveros@USPTO.GOV