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 .
Claims 1-13 are pending.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chu et al, application no. 2015/0131517, hereinafter known as Chu in view of Choi et al, application no. 2015/0230244, hereinafter known as Choi.
As to claim 1, Chu discloses wireless communication terminal, the wireless communication terminal comprising: a transceiver; and a processor (Chu, figure 1, part 25-1, [0047], terminal with transceiver and processor, figure 1, part 14, [0045], access point AP with transceiver and processor ), wherein the processor is configured to: receive a trigger frame including i) an association identifier (AID) field for assigning an AID, and ii) a frame check sequence (FCS) field (Chu, [0090], figure 9A. Access Point AP sending to plural terminal a trigger frame with AID; [0076], [0079], AID field used by a terminal to receive scheduled message for that particular terminal; figure 13b, [0118], FCS in control frame of the art, sent by terminal; [0003], use IEEE 802.11 communication standard for trigger frames disclosed in Chu, where FCS field are part of 802.11 standard communication standard). Chu does not expressly disclose however Choi discloses and decode the trigger frame, wherein the AID field indicates a start of a padding of the trigger frame when all of a plurality of bits constituting the AID field are set to '1' (Choi, figure 22 and 23, [0213]-[0217], AID field with padding setting plurality of bits to ‘1’).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Chu to include the limitations of and decode the trigger frame, wherein the AID field indicates a start of a padding of the trigger frame when all of a plurality of bits constituting the AID field are set to '1' as taught by Choi. Using of padding of bits set to 1 for example helps terminal determine where and what part of message to decode without incurring extra overhead.
As to claim 2, Chu discloses wherein the AID field is contained before the FCS field included in the trigger frame (Chu, figure 7b, figure 13b, fcs frame after AID at the end of the trigger frame).
As to claim 3, Chu and Choi disclose the wireless communication terminal of claim 1. Chu does not disclose however Choi discloses wherein all fields located between the AID field and the FCS field are padded when the AID field indicates the start of the padding (Choi, [0184], [0214], adding filler padding as needed after AID and before FCS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Chu to include the limitations of wherein all fields located between the AID field and the FCS field are padded when the AID field indicates the start of the padding as taught by Choi. Adding padding bits allows a terminal to determine boundary of the frame without extra overhead.
As to claim 4 Chu discloses wherein the padding of the trigger frame is used to provide a processing time for preparing a frame based on the trigger frame (Chu, [0090]-[0093], adding sufficient padding to allow for processing time of the frame).
As to claim 5, Chu discloses wherein the padding of the trigger frame is used to adjust a length of the trigger frame (Chu, [0093], [0184], padding to adjust length of trigger frames).
As to claim 6, Chu and Choi disclose the wireless communication terminal of claim 1. Chu does not disclose however Choi discloses wherein a value of the AID field for indicating the start of the padding is not allocated for any wireless communication terminal (Choi, [0211], [0222] ,[0223], AID field with value such 11, 00, 01, 10, that are not used to indicate terminal allocation).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Chu to include the limitations of wherein a value of the AID field for indicating the start of the padding is not allocated for any wireless communication terminal as taught by Choi. Use of explicit value for AID eliminates ambiguity of which value is to be decoded and which value not to be decoded by the terminal.
As to claim 7-12, the claims are rejected as applied to claim 1-6 above by in view of Chu in view of Choi.
As to claim 13, the claim is rejected as applied to claim 1 above by in view of Chu in view of Choi.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/MOHAMMED S CHOWDHURY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467