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 .
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-14 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ouzieli et al. (US 20180288664 A1) (IDS cited), hereinafter “Ouzieli”, in view of Henry et al. (US 20220066010 A1) (IDS cited), hereinafter “Henry”.
Per claim 1, 19 and 20:
Regarding claim 1, Ouzieli teaches ‘A client device’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]; [0006]: “a STA”); ‘comprising: a processor’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]: “Processor”); ‘a memory’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]: “Memory”); ‘communicatively coupled to the processor’ (Ouzieli: [0048]: “the processing circuitry being coupled to the memory”); ‘wherein the memory comprises a roaming management logic that is configured to’ (Ouzieli: [0017]-[0018]: “IEEE 802.11v is the Wireless Network Management standard for the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, and allows client devices to exchange information about the network topology … the AP is to transmit a “BSS Transition Management Request” frame that contains a list of roaming candidate APs generated by the AP. The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”; [0052]: “computer-readable non-transitory storage media 702, which may include computer-executable instructions, e.g., implemented by logic 704, operable to, when executed by at least one computer processor, enable the at least one computer processor to implement one or more operations at one or more STAs or APs, and/or to perform one or more operations”; [0048]: “The STA may for example correspond to the roaming STA 150 of FIG. 1 which is moving … After receiving the list of roaming candidate APs, the STA may scan one or more channels corresponding to the one or more roaming candidate APs”);
‘receive an action frame configured to indicate Ultra-Wideband (UWB) validation’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “AP”-> “STA”: “BSS Transition Management Request”, block 522: “Select Roaming AP and scan its channels”; [FIG.6]: block 604: “processing a second frame from the AP, the second frame including a list of one or more roaming candidate APs”, block 606: “scanning one or more channels corresponding to the one or more roaming candidate APs in response to the second frame”; [0003]: “The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism … a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”, a frame with a list roaming candidate APs which request the STA to perform action to scan to determine its target AP, i.e. an action frame indicating AP validation; [0043]: “Action frame”). However, Ouzieli fails to expressly teach UWB;
‘perform UWB ranging to one or more access points (APs) based on the action frame’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.1]: coverage (ranging) of each “AP1” – “AP6”; [FIG.5]: block 522: “Select Roaming AP and scan its channels”; [FIG.6]: block 606: “scanning one or more channels corresponding to the one or more roaming candidate APs in response to the second frame”; [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”; [0015]: “For a STA moving away from its current AP, the Wi-Fi signal between the STA and its current AP may degrade”; [0019]: “For a moving STA, the STA would be interested in discovering roaming candidate APs located in an area toward which the STA is moving”). However, Ouzieli fails to expressly teach UWB ranging;
‘determine a set of APs from the one or more APs based on the UWB ranging, wherein the set of APs is located ahead of the client device along a movement path of the client device’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.1]; [0021]: “STA is shown by way of arrow 152 as moving in the direction of BSS 4 and BSS 6”; [0019]: “For a moving STA, the STA would be interested in discovering roaming candidate APs located in an area toward which the STA is moving”). However, Ouzieli fails to expressly teach basing on UWB ranging;
‘select a roaming destination AP based on the determined set of APs’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”).
Henry in the same field of endeavor teaches STA can obtain UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area via action frame and perform UWB ranging to determine an optimal set of UWB anchors accordingly (Henry: [Abstract]: “a method may include, obtaining, by a mobile device, UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area; obtaining a UWB ranging instruction for the geographic area; and performing UWB ranging with a target UWB anchor based on the UWB ranging parameters and the UWB ranging instruction”; [0060]: “trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”; [0017]: “facilitate triggering Ultra-Wideband (UWB) ranging on a mobile device, also referred to herein as a client or station (STA)”; [0018]: “the infrastructure can also direct UWB ranging actions of mobile devices”; [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 19, Ouzieli teaches ‘A network device’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]; [0006]: “an AP”); ‘comprising: a processor’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]: “Processor”); ‘a network interface controller configured to provide access to a network’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]: “Front End Module Circuitry Wi-Fi”; [0029]: “Radio card 202 may include radio front-end module (FEM) circuitry”; [0031]: “FEM circuitry 204 may include Wi-Fi functionality, and may include receive signal path … FEM circuitry 204 may also include a transmit signal path”; network interface controller to provide access to a network); ‘a memory’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.2]: “Memory”); ‘communicatively coupled to the processor’ (Ouzieli: [0048]: “the processing circuitry being coupled to the memory”); ‘wherein the memory comprises a roaming management logic that is configured to’ (Ouzieli: [0017]-[0018]: “IEEE 802.11v is the Wireless Network Management standard for the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, and allows client devices to exchange information about the network topology … the AP is to transmit a “BSS Transition Management Request” frame that contains a list of roaming candidate APs generated by the AP. The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”;”; [0052]: “computer-readable non-transitory storage media 702, which may include computer-executable instructions, e.g., implemented by logic 704, operable to, when executed by at least one computer processor, enable the at least one computer processor to implement one or more operations at one or more STAs or APs, and/or to perform one or more operations”);
‘receive, from a client device, a roaming assistance request message is configured to indicate support for a roaming assistant technology’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “STA”-> “AP”: “BSS Transition Management query”, block 514: “Generate BSS Transition Management Query with Roaming Targeted Area field”, assistance for roaming targeted area; [0003]: “The STA may, for example, use a probe request and probe response exchange with the APs within an ESS in order to determine its new/target AP. The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism set forth in IEEE 802.11v by transmitting a BSS Transition Management Query to its current AP … a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP”, receive probe request or BTM query (a roaming assistance request message) from STA);
‘transmit to the client device: a roaming assistance response message based on the received roaming assistance request message, wherein the roaming assistance response message is configured to indicate one or more neighboring devices of the network device’ (Henry: [FIG.5]: “AP”-> “STA”: “BSS Transition Management Request”; [0003]: “based on a BSS Transition Management Request from its current AP sent in response to the BSS Transition Management Query, a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”; [0015]: “the BSS transitioning of a STA, IEEE 802.11 defines a scanning mechanism to allow the STA to discover its neighbor APs that may represent roaming candidates for the STA to transition to”; [0017]: “the current AP would have information on neighbor APs”; transmit BSS Transition Management Request (roaming assistance response message) to indicate one or more candidate (neighboring) APs to STA);
‘an action frame based on the indication of support for the roaming assistant technology, wherein the action frame is configured to indicate ultra-wideband (UWB) validation’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “AP”-> “STA”: “BSS Transition Management Request”, block 522: “Select Roaming AP and scan its channels”; [FIG.6]: block 604: “processing a second frame from the AP, the second frame including a list of one or more roaming candidate APs”, block 606: “scanning one or more channels corresponding to the one or more roaming candidate APs in response to the second frame”; [0003]: “The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism … a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”, a frame with a list roaming candidate APs which request the STA to perform action to scan to determine its target AP, i.e. an action frame indicating AP validation; [0043]: “Action frame”). However, Ouzieli fails to expressly teach UWB.
Henry in the same field of endeavor teaches STA can obtain UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area via action frame and perform UWB ranging to determine an optimal set of UWB anchors accordingly (Henry: [Abstract]: “a method may include, obtaining, by a mobile device, UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area; obtaining a UWB ranging instruction for the geographic area; and performing UWB ranging with a target UWB anchor based on the UWB ranging parameters and the UWB ranging instruction”; [0060]: “trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”; [0017]: “facilitate triggering Ultra-Wideband (UWB) ranging on a mobile device, also referred to herein as a client or station (STA)”; [0018]: “the infrastructure can also direct UWB ranging actions of mobile devices”; [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 20, claim 20 recites the method implemented by the client device of claim 1 (see rejection of claim 20 above).
Regarding claim 2, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘wherein the action frame is received from a roaming source AP currently associated with the client device’ (Ouzieli: [0003]: “for the STA to determine which new AP to associate with if it needs to break its association with its current AP … The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism set forth in IEEE 802.11v by transmitting a BSS Transition Management Query to its current AP to determine, based on a BSS Transition Management Request from its current AP sent in response to the BSS Transition Management Query, a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”; receive a frame with a list roaming candidate APs which request the STA to perform action to scan to determine its target AP, i.e. an action frame, from current (source) AP associated with the client device; [0043]: “Action frame”. Henry: [0060]: “trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”; [0018]: “the infrastructure can also direct UWB ranging actions of mobile devices”; [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of UWB ranging parameters with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 3, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 2 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘transmit a roaming assistance request message to the roaming source AP’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “STA”-> “AP”: “BSS Transition Management query”; [0003]: “The STA may, for example, use a probe request and probe response exchange with the APs within an ESS in order to determine its new/target AP. The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism set forth in IEEE 802.11v by transmitting a BSS Transition Management Query to its current AP … a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP”, send probe request or BTM query (a roaming assistance request message) to roaming source AP);
‘wherein the roaming assistance request message is configured to indicate support for a roaming assistant technology’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: block 514: “Generate BSS Transition Management Query with Roaming Targeted Area field”, assistance for roaming targeted area. Henry: [0060]: “trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”; [0056]: “one feature of the readiness phase is that hundreds of mobile devices approaching a same venue entrance (e.g., for a building/arena/etc.) are to learn about UWB support for the venue before getting within UWB ranging distance”; [0063]: “the mobile detects the UWB IE and sends an Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) query of a type indicating UWB synchronization (sync) query”; [0055]: “The infrastructure may also learn whether the mobile device supports UWB”; assistance for UWB ranging);
‘wherein the action frame is based on the indication of support for the roaming assistant technology’ (Henry: [FIG.5]: block 518: “Generate list of roaming candidate APs including prioritizing AP based on information on direction of movement of STA in Roaming Targeted-Area field”, block 520: “Generate a BSS Transition Management Request frame with list of roaming candidate APs based on their priority”; [0043]: “Action frame”. Henry: [0060]: “indicating that both UWB ranging is supported and UWB ranging parameters are available may be signaled as binary ‘0011’ for a 4-bit UWB IE. Signaling to the mobile device 140(1) that UWB ranging parameters are available can be used to trigger the mobile device 140(1) to connect to the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the ranging parameters … trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”);
‘receive a roaming assistance response message from the roaming source AP based on the transmitted roaming assistance request message, wherein the roaming assistance response message is configured to indicate one or more neighboring APs’ (Henry: [FIG.5]: “AP”-> “STA”: “BSS Transition Management Request”; [0003]: “based on a BSS Transition Management Request from its current AP sent in response to the BSS Transition Management Query, a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”; [0015]: “the BSS transitioning of a STA, IEEE 802.11 defines a scanning mechanism to allow the STA to discover its neighbor APs that may represent roaming candidates for the STA to transition to”; [0017]: “the current AP would have information on neighbor APs”; receive BSS Transition Management Request (roaming assistance response message) to indicate one or more candidate (neighboring) APs from roaming source AP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of UWB ranging parameters with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 4, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 3 (discussed above).
Ouzieli teaches ‘wherein the roaming assistance request message comprises at least one of a basic service set (BSS) transition management (BTM) query’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “STA”-> “AP”: “BSS Transition Management query”); ‘a neighbor report request’ (this is optional);
‘the roaming assistance response message comprises at least one of a BTM request’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.5]: “AP”-> “STA”: “BSS Transition Management Request”); ‘a neighbor report’ (this is optional).
Regarding claim 5, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 3 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘wherein determining the set of APs based on the UWB ranging comprises cross-validating one or more results of the UWB ranging against data from the roaming assistance response message’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”, scan (cross-validate) the roaming candidate APs to determine target AP. Henry: [0017]: “UWB anchor information that may allow each of one or more mobile devices to range securely against one or more different groups of UWB anchors”; [0020]: “obtaining, by a mobile device, UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area … performing, by the mobile device, UWB ranging with the target UWB anchor based on the UWB ranging parameters and the UWB ranging instruction”. Cross-validate results of UWB ranging against data from response message to determine target AP).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of UWB ranging parameters with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 6, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Ouzieli teaches ‘wherein the roaming management logic is further configured to scan for one or more neighboring APs’ ((Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning; [0015]: “the BSS transitioning of a STA, IEEE 802.11 defines a scanning mechanism to allow the STA to discover its neighbor APs that may represent roaming candidates for the STA to transition to”).
Regarding claim 7, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Ouzieli teaches ‘one or more identifiers of each of the one or more APs’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “the AP is to transmit a “BSS Transition Management Request” frame that contains a list of roaming candidate APs generated by the AP. The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”; [FIG.1]: “AP1” => BSS-ID: “BSS1”, “AP2” => BSS-ID: “BSS2” … “AP6”=> BSS-ID: “BSS6”; [0021]: “a plurality of Basic Service Sets (BSS') BSS1, BSS2, BSS3, BSS 4, BSS 5 and BSS 6 … The BSS' include respective APs, AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5 and AP6”; [0016]: “Service Set Identifier (SSID) as the current AP” => each roaming candidate AP could be specified by its BSS-ID).
Regarding claim 8, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 7 (discussed above).
Ouzieli teaches ‘wherein the one or more identifiers comprise at least one of a basic service set identifier (BSSID)’ (Ouzieli: [FIG.1]: “AP1” => BSS-ID: “BSS1”, “AP2” => BSS-ID: “BSS2” … “AP6”=> BSS-ID: “BSS6”; [0021]: “a plurality of Basic Service Sets (BSS') BSS1, BSS2, BSS3, BSS 4, BSS 5 and BSS 6 … The BSS' include respective APs, AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5 and AP6”; [0016]: “Service Set Identifier (SSID) as the current AP”); ‘a UWB identifier’ (this is optional).
Regarding claim 9, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 7 (discussed above).
Ouzieli does not expressly teach, but Henry teaches ‘wherein the action frame further comprises an indication of a set of UWB characteristics for at least one of the one or more APs’ (Henry: [Abstract]: “a method may include, obtaining, by a mobile device, UWB ranging parameters for a geographic area; obtaining a UWB ranging instruction for the geographic area”; [0060]: “trigger the device to exchange one or more action frames with the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the parameters”; [0071]: “UWB ranging parameters for all UWB anchors in the group may include preamble type, expected modulation”; [0084]: “a UWB ranging instruction including, but not limited to, UWB channel number”, include UWB characteristics such as modulation or UWB channel).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 10, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 7 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘an indication of at least one mechanism to discover a set of UWB characteristics for at least one of the one or more APs’ (Ouzieli: [0003]: “The STA may alternatively use the “BSS Transition Management” mechanism set forth in IEEE 802.11v by transmitting a BSS Transition Management Query to its current AP to determine, based on a BSS Transition Management Request from its current AP sent in response to the BSS Transition Management Query, a list roaming candidate APs whose channels the STA could scan to determine its target AP (the AP it will roam to) from the list”. Henry: [0060]: “indicating that both UWB ranging is supported and UWB ranging parameters are available may be signaled as binary ‘0011’ for a 4-bit UWB IE. Signaling to the mobile device 140(1) that UWB ranging parameters are available can be used to trigger the mobile device 140(1) to connect to the radio device 105(1) in order to obtain the ranging parameters. In various embodiments, the UWB IE may be any proprietary or existing IE (e.g., Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) signaling”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 11, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 10 (discussed above).
Ouzieli teaches ‘at least one of probing’ (Ouzieli: [0003]: “The STA may, for example, use a probe request and probe response exchange with the APs within an ESS in order to determine its new/target AP”); ‘access network query protocol (ANQP)-based querying’ (this is optional).
Regarding claim 12, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Ouzieli does not expressly teach, but Henry teaches ‘wherein the UWB ranging is based on a Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA)’ (Henry: [0071]: “UWB ranging can include time-of-flight (ToF), time-of-arrival (ToA), time-difference-of-arrival (TDoA)”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 13, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 12 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘wherein the UWB ranging to at least one of the one or more APs is performed two or more times’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”; [FIG.1]: “AP1”, “AP2”, “AP3”; [0025]: “AP1 would include AP2 and AP3 in the list of roaming candidate APs”; would scan at least two APs. Henry: [0017]: “allow each of one or more mobile devices to range securely against one or more different groups of UWB anchors”; [0116]: “the UWB ranging parameters may include one or more of a group index identifying a group of UWB anchors for a geographic area, wherein the UWB anchor is a member of the group of UWB anchors for the geographic area”; would perform UWB ranging multiple times).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 14, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 12 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘determine the movement path of the client device relative to each of the one or more APs based on the UWB ranging’ (Ouzieli: [0027]: “STA 150, after detecting its location, its movement and its direction of movement, may send to AP1 information regarding its movement. AP1 would then, having this information, and further having information regarding neighboring APs, generate and transmit information to STA 150 including a list of roaming candidate APs based on the information regarding a location of the STA 150, in this case a target location toward which the STA is estimated to be moving”. Henry: [0020]: “performing, by the mobile device, UWB ranging with the target UWB anchor based on the UWB ranging parameters and the UWB ranging instruction. The method may further include the mobile device obtaining location information indicating a location of the mobile device as a result of the UWB ranging”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of UWB ranging with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Regarding claim 18, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches ‘wherein the roaming destination AP is selected further based on at least one of a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”. Henry: [0022]: “UWB ranging can include time-of-flight (ToF), time-of-arrival (ToA), time-difference-of-arrival (TDoA), received signal strength indicator (RSSI)”);
‘a Quality of Service Basic Service Set (QBSS) load of at least one AP in the determined set of APs’ (this is optional).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of UWB ranging with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Claims 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over combination of Ouzieli and Henry as applied to claim 1 above, in view of Kang et al. (US 20230126730 A1), hereinafter “Kang”.
Regarding claim 15, combination of Ouzieli and Henry teaches the client device of claim 1 (discussed above).
Ouzieli does not expressly teach, but Henry teaches ‘wherein performing the UWB ranging comprises utilizing a UWB radar function’ (Henry: [0020]: “the mobile device obtaining location information indicating a location of the mobile device as a result of the UWB ranging”). However, combination of Ouzieli and Henry fails to expressly teach ‘utilizing a UWB radar function’.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching with that of Ouzieli in order to share UWB ranging between the infrastructure and the mobile device and select an optimal set of UWB anchors for client ranging (Henry: [0028]: “techniques in which an infrastructure (e.g., any combination of Wi-Fi Access Points (APs), UWB anchors, a network controller, and/or a network location server) can trigger UWB ranging on a client/mobile device. The result from the UWB ranging can be shared between the infrastructure and the mobile device”; [0041]: “The location server 190 can be configured to assign anchors so that accurate client ranging is enabled for each of the mobile devices 140 regardless of density. For example, for a particular mobile device 140, the location server 190 can select an optimal set of anchors for client ranging from all available radio devices 105, peripheral UWB anchor devices 115, and/or standalone UWB anchor devices 120 in the geographic area”).
Kang in the same field of endeavor teaches ‘utilizing a UWB radar function’ (Kang: [0069]: “The electronic device 101 may reduce false positives using a UWB radar function in addition to the UWB ranging function”; [0147]: “the electronic device 101 may transmit a UWB radar signal, may receive a signal … enabling accurate detection”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Kang’s teaching with that of combination of Ouzieli and Henry in order to enable accurate detection (see reference quotes in element above).
Regarding claim 16, combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang teaches the client device of claim 15 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang teaches ‘determine a line-of-sight (LoS)/non-LoS (nLoS) status relative to the client device for each of the one or more APs based on the UWB ranging’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”. Henry: [0022]: “UWB ranging is relatively precise, providing ranging accuracy within about 10 centimeters in line-of-sight (LoS) situations”. Kang: [0013]: “a confidence level for determining an object detectable area may be adaptively adjusted according to a propagation environment, thereby determining a detectable area having a low probability of an error”; would determine propagation environment such as LoS/nLoS status relative to the client device for ranging accuracy with low probability of an error).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of ranging accuracy for LoS and Kang’s teaching of confident level based on propagation environment with that of Ouzieli in order to determine a detectable area having a low probability of an error for ranging accuracy (see reference quotes in element above).
Claims 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang as applied to claim 16 above, in view of Moorthy et al. (US 20250088835 A1), hereinafter “Moorthy”.
Regarding claim 17, combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang teaches the client device of claim 16 (discussed above).
Combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang teaches ‘determine a stability status of the LoS/nLoS status for each of the one or more APs based on the UWB ranging’ (Ouzieli: [0018]: “The STA would then use the list of roaming candidate APs as a list of APs whose channels the STA is to scan to determine its target AP for transitioning”. Henry: [0022]: “UWB ranging is relatively precise, providing ranging accuracy within about 10 centimeters in line-of-sight (LoS) situations”. Kang: [0013]: “a confidence level for determining an object detectable area may be adaptively adjusted according to a propagation environment, thereby determining a detectable area having a low probability of an error”; would determine propagation environment such as stability status of LoS/nLoS status relative to the client device about ranging accuracy with low probability of an error).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Henry’s teaching of ranging accuracy for LoS and Kang’s teaching of confident level based on propagation environment with that of Ouzieli in order to determine a detectable area having a low probability of an error for ranging accuracy (see reference quotes in element above).
Moreover, Moorthy in the same field of endeavor teaches ‘a stability status of the LoS/nLoS status’ (Moorthy: [FIG.1]: “UWB”, “ranging session”; [0041]: “visibility can be detected based on analyzing a line of sight (LoS) and/or no line of sight (nLoS) link budget … the LoS curve is stable”. [FIG.4a]: “LOS Link Budget” vs “Time(s)” => stability status of LoS status; [FIG.4b]: “NLOS Link Budget” vs Time(s)” => stability status of nLoS status).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Moorthy’s teaching with that of combination of Ouzieli, Henry and Kang in order to perform UWB ranging with consideration of stability status of LoS/nLoS.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20230209418 A1 (IDS cited) see [FIG.1]-[FIG.9], [0003]-[0020], [0037]-[0060];
US 20160302145 A1 see [FIG.1]-[FIG.5B], [0132]-[0169];
US 20160073316 A1 see [FIG.2]-[FIG.6], [0027]-[0042];
US 20090061799 A1 see [0030]-[0034];
US 20250126506 A1 see [0151].
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/G.F./Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462
