DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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 .
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.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged. In particular, this Application is the bypass application of an international application that claims foreign priority to a Chinese application, filed on 11 Apr 2022. Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements, submitted on 3 Jan 2025 and 9 Jul 2025, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
The Reply finds that “Kwon’s Check Beacon field is a trigger flag that tells the STA ‘go look at the beacon,’ not a self-contained indicator that itself informs the STA MLD whether a key BSS parameter corresponding to at least one AP of the AP MLD has changed.” Reply, 8. This statement unduly minimizes the Check Beacon field of Kwon. Kwon teaches an AP MLD capable of informing a non-AP MLD of various events or updates. Kwon, ¶23. In the prior art, a change in sequence number was used to inform the non-AP MLD of a change. Kwon, ¶48 (in IEEE 802.11TGbe, change sequence number in management frame). In particular, a Change Sequence value may be incremented when, for example, a EDCA parameter set is updated. Kwon, ¶6. However, Kwon also teaches preserving the Change Sequence value when certain updates occur. Kwon, ¶4. In these instances, the AP MPD increments the Check Beacon value instead. Kwon, ¶5. Because “a Check Beacon value included in the Check Beacon field 606 may be incremented or preserved in response to an update event being identified” (Kwon, ¶70), the Check Beacon field informs the non-AP MLD of a change, as required by the claimed invention. Kwon, ¶68 (examples of when Change Sequence field is incremented or preserved); Kwon, ¶¶71-72 (examples of when Check Beacon field is incremented when Change Sequence field is preserved).
To overcome Kwon, the Examiner recommends considering which update events are conveyed via the Change Sequence field compared to the Check Beacon field. Kwon, ¶¶4, 6. In other words, a change to some of the key BSS parameters in claim 9 are conveyed via the Change Sequence field and other are conveyed via the Check Beacon field.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 7, 9-13, 16, and 18-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kwon (US 20220132419).
Regarding claims 1, 10, and 19, Kwon teaches a communication method, a first access point (AP) of a first access point multi-link device (AP MLD), comprising a memory, configured to store computer instructions; and a processor, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to execute the computer instructions stored in the memory (Kwon, ¶¶44, 96 – elements of EHT AP include processor and memory), to enable the AP to execute the method, comprising:
generating, by a first access point (AP) of a first access point multi-link device (AP MLD), first information that indicates whether a key basic service set (BSS) parameter corresponding to at least one AP of the first AP MLD changes (Kwon, ¶55 – critical update event defined by TIM broadcast; Kwon, ¶69 – AP supports multi-link operations when deciding whether to update a Check Beacon field of a TIM frame transmitted by the AP MLD),
wherein the first information is carried in a check beacon field (Kwon, ¶72 – update event is a check beacon value in the check beacon field of a TIM frame), and
wherein the check beacon field is carried in a traffic indication map (TIM) frame (Kwon, figure 6 – TIM frame with check beacon field); and
sending, by the first AP, the first information to a first station multi-link device (STA MLD). Kwon, ¶70 (AP MLD sends TIM frame to non-AP MLD).
Regarding claims 2, 11, and 20, Kwon also teaches wherein the first information is a count value. Kwon, ¶72 (like the change sequence value, which starts at zero and then is incremented, thereby counting the update events, the check beacon value may do the same).
Regarding claims 3, 12, and 21, Kwon also teaches wherein a value of the first information is increased when the key BSS parameter corresponding to the at least one AP of the first AP MLD changes. Kwon, ¶72 (value of check beacon field is incremented when an update event occurs); see also id., ¶55 for update event defined by TIM broadcast.
Regarding claims 4, 13, and 22, Kwon also teaches wherein a value of the first information remains unchanged when no key BSS parameters corresponding to APs of the first AP MLD change. Kwon, ¶¶55, 72 (conversely to the rejection of claims 3 and 12, if an update event does not occur, then the value of the change sequence number does not change).
Regarding claims 7, 16, and 23, Kwon also teaches receiving, by the first AP, a first frame that is for requesting a key BSS parameter corresponding to an AP associated with a second STA, and the second STA is a station in the first STA MLD that is associated with the first AP MLD (Kwon, ¶65 – probe request is sent by a non-AP STA of a non-AP MLD to the AP MLD); and
sending, by the first AP, a second frame that comprises the key BSS parameter corresponding to the AP associated with the second STA. Kwon, ¶75 (AP MLD sends a probe response frame that can include the change sequence field); Kwon, ¶¶50 and figure 2 (probe response frame may include the fields shown in figure 2 that define a BSS, such as BSS ID 210).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Kwon also teaches wherein the key BSS parameter comprises at least one or more of the following:
inclusion of a channel switch announcement element,
inclusion of an extended channel switch announcement element,
modification of an enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) parameters element,
inclusion of a quiet element,
modification of a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) parameter set,
modification of a contention free (CF) parameter set element,
modification of a high throughput (HT) operation element,
inclusion of a wide bandwidth channel switch element,
inclusion of a channel switch wrapper element,
inclusion of an operating mode notification element,
inclusion of a quiet channel element,
modification of a very high throughput (VHT) operation element,
modification of a high efficiency (HE) operation element,
insertion of a broadcast target wake up time (TWT) element,
inclusion of a BSS color change announcement element,
modification of a multi-user EDCA parameter set element,
modification of a spatial reuse parameter set element, or
modification of an extremely high throughput operation element. Kwon, ¶¶4, 57.
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 8, 17, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon (US 20220132419) in view of Kim (US 20230413165).
Regarding claims 8, 17, and 24, Kwon teaches the method according to claim 7, the first AP according to claim 16, and the storage medium of claim 23, but does not explicitly teach “wherein the second STA is all STAs of the first STA MLD.” However, Kim teaches an AP receiving a probe request and transmitting a probe response that includes critical update information. Kim, ¶584. The critical update information can be requested for all links. Kim, ¶581 and figure 63. At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to enable all STAs in the STA MLD to request and receive critical update information in one response, as taught by Kim, when indicating an update event, as taught by Kwon, in order to compress the amount of signaling required in a critical update event. Kim, ¶584.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN S LAMONT whose telephone number is (571)270-7514 and email address is benjamin.lamont@uspto.gov (see MPEP 502.03 for using EFS or mail, but not email to authorize electronic communications). The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7am to 3pm EST.
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/Benjamin Lamont/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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