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.
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.
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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1-4, 10-13, and 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Pub. 2017/0126363 to Wang et al. (hereinafter Wang) in view of US Pub. 2017/0223480 to Han et al. (hereinafter Han) and further in view of US Pub. 2018/0007701 to Adachi et al. (hereinafter Adachi).
In regard claim 1, Wang teaches or discloses a communication method, comprising:
receiving, by a receive end, indication information from a transmit end (see paragraph [0248], the receiving STA receives a partial retransmission for a reception failure Case 1, the receiving STA may combine the retransmitted signal with the original transmission at the receiver to improve the Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) of the received bits and improve the link performance); and
discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) according to the indication information (see paragraph [0248], the receiving STA may discard the less reliable information in the original transmission and replace it with the information received from the retransmission before passing the combined LLRs to the decoder. The receiving STA may weigh the less reliable information in the original transmission by a suitable weighting factor before combining it with the retransmission and passing the combined LLRs to the decoder).
Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe.
However, Han teaches or discloses discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe (see paragraph [0025], in some scenarios, if the MTC device 114 has insufficient amount of storage for a given transport block, and a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may choose to store some LLRs and discard some other LLRs. In other scenarios, if no storage is available or no storage is deemed necessary for a transport block, if a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may discard all LLRs corresponding to the transport block. Such scenarios typically occur where the network entity transmits a quantity of coded bits that exceed the storage capacity of the UE).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang by including discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits suggested by Han. This modification would provide to perform limited buffer rate matching to store only a limited number of the combined LLRs in a softer buffer read in paragraph [0065].
Han and Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe (see paragraph [0073], the former data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MPDU and the latter data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MSDU (MAC service data unit) in IEEE 802.11 standard. In the case of the A-MPDU, a plurality of MPDUs is aggregated with each other within the PSDU. In the case of the A-MSDU, MSDUs which are a plurality of data payloads are aggregated within the frame body of one MPDU. As for each of A-MPDU and A-MSDU, partition information (length information, etc.) is stored in the data frame so that the aggregation of multiple MPDUs and the aggregation of multiple MSDUs can be appropriately separated at the receiver terminal. Both of the A-MPDU and the A-MSDU may be used in combination. The target of A-MPDU may be only one MAC frame instead of multiple MAC frames).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
In regard claims 2, 11, and 16, Wang teach or discloses a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) (see paragraphs [0089], and [0090], PHY designs have been proposed to enable HARQ for WiFi in including: physical layer frame design, MAC header design, HARQ retransmission procedures, PSDU frame aggregation with HARQ, and LDPC design with HARQ system. Retransmission methods designed for HARQ combining in which the transmitter retransmits the entire packet o r a redundancy version of the packet have been proposed. HARQ retransmission with A-PSDU format with a detailed frame format and retransmission procedures).
Wang and Han may not explicitly teach or disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the indication information comprises block acknowledgment request (BAR) information in a BAR frame, and the BAR frame further comprises BAR type information indicating that the BAR frame.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses wherein the indication information comprises block acknowledgment request (BAR) information in a BAR frame, and the BAR frame further comprises BAR type information indicating that the BAR frame (see paragraphs [0073], and [0075], the responses to the plurality of MAC frames are collectively transmitted in such a case of the data frame being A-MPDU. For the response in this case, the BA (BlockACK) frame is used instead of the ACK frame).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including block acknowledgment request (BAR) information in a BAR frame, and the BAR frame further comprises BAR type information indicating that the BAR frame suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
In regard claims 3, 12, and 17, Wang and Han may not explicitly teach or disclose the method according to claim 2, the target MPDU comprises an MPDU whose sequence number in the MPDU corresponding to the LLR stored in a buffer is less than the end sequence number (see paragraphs [0237], [0238], [0239], and [0248], the retransmission MPDU subframes 2304 and 2309 may include MPDU delimiters 2305 and 2308, payloads 2306 and 2310, and pads 2307 and 2311. The new transmission MPDU subframe 2315 may include MPDU delimiter 2312, payload 2313, and pad 2314. A retransmission payload may include MPDU header 2316, payload 2317, and FCS 2318. The MPDU header of the retransmission MPDU subframes 2304 and 2309 may remain the same as the original transmission. Further, the MPDU delimiters 2305 and 2308 of the retransmission MPDU subframes may either remain the same as the original transmission if the delimiter was used for the original transmission or may be redefined if the delimiter was not used for the original transmission. If the MPDU delimiter of the retransmission MPDU subframe is redefined, the delimiter may be replaced with a sequence of all zeros or may be modified as in Table 3 below. When the receiving STA receives a partial retransmission for a reception failure Case 1, the receiving STA may combine the retransmitted signal with the original transmission at the receiver to improve the Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) of the received bits and improve the link performance).
Wang and Han may not explicitly teach or disclose the method according to claim 2, wherein the BAR information comprises an end sequence number.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses wherein the BAR information comprises an end sequence number (see paragraph [0176], the BAR frame in conformity with the existing standard may be extended. To achieve this, in the body field of the format of the existing BAR frame, for example, at a position after or before BAR Information field (a field in which the sequence number or the like of the MAC frame requested at the first time through the BAR frame is set) or another position, a field for identifying BA frame transmission timing (called a transmission timing field) and a field for identifying the MCS (or transmission rate) to be applied to the BA frame (called a transmission rate field) may be added).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including wherein the BAR information comprises an end sequence number suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
In regard claims 4, 13, and 18, Wang and Han may not explicitly teach or disclose the method according to claim 2, wherein the BAR frame further comprises a traffic type bitmap, and the traffic type bitmap is used to indicate traffic corresponding to the BAR frame.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses wherein the BAR frame further comprises a traffic type bitmap, and the traffic type bitmap is used to indicate traffic corresponding to the BAR frame (see paragraphs [0101], [0127], and [0167], in the Frame Control field, two fields that are Type and Subtype are set as described before. Broad discrimination among the data frame, management frame and control frame is made according to the Type field. Narrow discrimination in the broadly discriminated frames, for example, identification of the BA frame, BAR frame, and a Beacon frame in the management frame, is made according to Subtype field. The BAR frame is a control frame, and the type and sub-type of the MAC header are set to the respective values indicating Control and BAR).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including wherein the BAR frame further comprises a traffic type bitmap, and the traffic type bitmap is used to indicate traffic corresponding to the BAR frame suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
In regard claim 10, Wang teaches or discloses a communication method, comprising:
sending, by a transmit end, indication information to a receive end (see paragraph [0104], the transmitter and receiver may exchange the ReFIRe capability information, such as the capability of the receiver to measure and report for ReFIRe, and the transmitter's capability to utilize the measurement report at the transmitter),
wherein the indication information is used to indicate the receive end to discard a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) according to the indication information (see paragraph [0248], the receiving STA may discard the less reliable information in the original transmission and replace it with the information received from the retransmission before passing the combined LLRs to the decoder. The receiving STA may weigh the less reliable information in the original transmission by a suitable weighting factor before combining it with the retransmission and passing the combined LLRs to the decoder).
Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose discard a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU).
However, Han teaches or discloses discard a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) (see paragraph [0025], in some scenarios, if the MTC device 114 has insufficient amount of storage for a given transport block, and a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may choose to store some LLRs and discard some other LLRs. In other scenarios, if no storage is available or no storage is deemed necessary for a transport block, if a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may discard all LLRs corresponding to the transport block. Such scenarios typically occur where the network entity transmits a quantity of coded bits that exceed the storage capacity of the UE).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang by including discard a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) suggested by Han. This modification would provide to perform limited buffer rate matching to store only a limited number of the combined LLRs in a softer buffer read in paragraph [0065].
Han and Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe (see paragraph [0073], the former data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MPDU and the latter data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MSDU (MAC service data unit) in IEEE 802.11 standard. In the case of the A-MPDU, a plurality of MPDUs is aggregated with each other within the PSDU. In the case of the A-MSDU, MSDUs which are a plurality of data payloads are aggregated within the frame body of one MPDU. As for each of A-MPDU and A-MSDU, partition information (length information, etc.) is stored in the data frame so that the aggregation of multiple MPDUs and the aggregation of multiple MSDUs can be appropriately separated at the receiver terminal. Both of the A-MPDU and the A-MSDU may be used in combination. The target of A-MPDU may be only one MAC frame instead of multiple MAC frames).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
In regard claim 15, Wang teaches or discloses a communication apparatus (see Fig. 1B), comprising:
one or more processors (see Fig. 1b, element 118); and
a memory storing a program to be executed by the one or more processors (see Fig. 1b), wherein the program comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the communication apparatus to perform operations comprising:
receiving indication information from a transmit end (see paragraph [0248], the receiving STA receives a partial retransmission for a reception failure Case 1, the receiving STA may combine the retransmitted signal with the original transmission at the receiver to improve the Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) of the received bits and improve the link performance); and
discarding a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe including a target media access control protocol data unit (MPDU) according to the indication information (see paragraph [0248], the receiving STA may discard the less reliable information in the original transmission and replace it with the information received from the retransmission before passing the combined LLRs to the decoder. The receiving STA may weigh the less reliable information in the original transmission by a suitable weighting factor before combining it with the retransmission and passing the combined LLRs to the decoder).
Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe.
However, Han teaches or discloses discarding a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits in an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe (see paragraph [0025], in some scenarios, if the MTC device 114 has insufficient amount of storage for a given transport block, and a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may choose to store some LLRs and discard some other LLRs. In other scenarios, if no storage is available or no storage is deemed necessary for a transport block, if a decoding failure occurs, the MTC device 114 may discard all LLRs corresponding to the transport block. Such scenarios typically occur where the network entity transmits a quantity of coded bits that exceed the storage capacity of the UE).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for `reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang by including discarding, by the receive end, a log-likelihood ratio (LLR) corresponding to coded bits suggested by Han. This modification would provide to perform limited buffer rate matching to store only a limited number of the combined LLRs in a softer buffer read in paragraph [0065].
Han and Wang may not explicitly teach or disclose an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe.
However, Adachi teaches or discloses an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe (see paragraph [0073], the former data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MPDU and the latter data frame is called an A (Aggregated)-MSDU (MAC service data unit) in IEEE 802.11 standard. In the case of the A-MPDU, a plurality of MPDUs is aggregated with each other within the PSDU. In the case of the A-MSDU, MSDUs which are a plurality of data payloads are aggregated within the frame body of one MPDU. As for each of A-MPDU and A-MSDU, partition information (length information, etc.) is stored in the data frame so that the aggregation of multiple MPDUs and the aggregation of multiple MSDUs can be appropriately separated at the receiver terminal. Both of the A-MPDU and the A-MSDU may be used in combination. The target of A-MPDU may be only one MAC frame instead of multiple MAC frames).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify methods for reception failure identification and remediation for Wi-Fi of Wang and apparatus and methods for reducing soft buffer size in MTC devices of Han by including an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe suggested by Adachi. This modification would provide to save may be increase by lower the number of HARQ process for low-cost MTC devices read on paragraph [0015].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-9, 14, 19, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/PHIRIN SAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2476
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