DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
1. The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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 –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
2. Claim(s) 1 and 2 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Hasty (US PG Pub. No. 2008/0080553).
As per claim 1:
Hasty teaches a communication method (see paragraph [0014], teaches a method and steps related to dynamically selecting a channel bandwidth for transmitting a data packet over a wireless communication link which couples a transmitter node to a receiver node), comprising:
receiving, from a first station, a first frame by a second station (see Figure 3, step 350, receiver or destination node 330 (construed as said first station) receives bandwidth request message from transmitter or source node 320. Note: Paragraph [0041] disclose said request message can be implemented within a request-to-send (RTS) message and paragraph [0047] disclose the RTS message 400 is a frame structure and thus said request message is a message frame), wherein the first frame comprises first information (see paragraph [0041], the request message specifies the requested channel bandwidth), and wherein the first information indicates bandwidth for a data frame (see paragraph [0041], the requested channel bandwidth is the channel bandwidth which the transmitter/source node 320 requests to use for transmitting information (e.g., data packet or other information) to the receiver/destination node 330);
transmitting, by the second station, a second frame to the first station (see Figure 3, step 360, the receiver/destination node 330 transmitting a bandwidth response message back to the transmitter/source node 320. Note: Paragraph [0043] disclosing the response message can be implemented within a clear-to-send (CTS) message and paragraph [0049] for example discloses said CTS message is a frame structure and thus said response message is a message frame);
receiving, from the first station, the data frame (see Figure 3, step 365, transmitter/source node 320 sending data to receiver/destination node 330. Note: Paragraph [0038], successful reception of an ACK following transmission of the corresponding data frame constitutes success in the time allotted. Thus, the sent data is a data frame);
and transmitting, by the second station, an acknowledgement frame (see Figure 3, step, 370, receiver/destination node 330 sending an ACK back to the transmitter/source node 320. Note: Said ACK could be an ACK type frame, please see paragraph [0049]).
As per claim 2:
Hasty teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first frame comprises a request-to-send (RTS) frame (Paragraph [0041] disclose said request message can be implemented within a request-to-send (RTS) message and paragraph [0047] disclose the RTS message 400 is a frame structure and thus said request message is a message frame), and the second frame comprises a clear-to-send (CTS) frame (Paragraph [0043] disclosing the response message can be implemented within a clear-to-send (CTS) message and paragraph [0049] for example discloses said CTS message is a frame structure and thus said response message is a message frame).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claim 3 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hasty in view of Bahl (US PG Pub. No. 2009/0196180).
As per claim 3:
Hasty teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the first frame comprises second information which indicates resource unit (RU) allocation.
Bahl teaches wherein the first frame comprises second information which indicates resource unit (RU) allocation (paragraph [0052], the winning node 106 sends a modified RTS packet to carry traffic load information and several proposed “resource blocks” to the receiver 108. A time-spectrum block 116 is specified by its frequency interval and the time interval, please see paragraph [0052] and thus a resource block).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the sending of RTS packet indicating the resource blocks to the receiver (as disclosed in Bahl) into Hasty as a way of enabling the receiver to choose a time-spectrum block 116 (please see paragraph [0053] of Bahl). Therefore, by choosing the selected time-spectrum block 116, the sending uses the reserved time-spectrum block 116 to send data to the intended receiver (please see paragraph [0057] of Bahl).
5. Claim 4 is rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hasty in view of Li (US PG Pub. No. 2011/0087944).
As per claim 4:
Hasty teaches the method of claim 2 with the exception of:
wherein the first frame comprises third information which indicates a number of spatial streams.
Li teaches wherein the first frame comprises third information which indicates a number of spatial streams (see paragraphs [0050], [0051], discloses a response may suggest changing the number of spatial streams employed by a transmitting device).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the changing of the number of spatial streams (such as reducing the number of spatial streams as disclosed in Li) into Hasty as a way of increasing the receiver’s capability to null out interference (please see paragraph [0051] of Li). Therefore, when the transmitting and receiving devices engage in link adaptations such as spatial stream adjustments, the respective devices may advantageously increase throughput (please see paragraph [0015] of Li).
6. Claim 5 is rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hasty in view of Xhafa (US PG Pub. No. 2009/0040990).
As per claim 5:
Hasty teaches the method of claim 1 with the exception of:
wherein the acknowledgement frame is a block acknowledgement frame.
Xhafa teaches wherein the acknowledgement frame is a block acknowledgement frame (paragraph [0038], the STA response with a single ACK or block-ACK arrangement identifying the packets received).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to implement the transmission of a single ACK/block-ACK arrangement (as disclosed in Xhafa) into Hasty as a way of indicating the packets received (please see paragraph [0038] of Xhafa).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRINCE AKWASI MENSAH whose telephone number is (571)270-7183. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:00pm.
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PRINCE AKWASI. MENSAH
Examiner
Art Unit 2474
/PRINCE A MENSAH/ Examiner, Art Unit 2474
/Michael Thier/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2474
