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 1-20 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, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alpert et al, application no. 2020/0162963 hereinafter known as Alpert in view of in view of Ito, Osamu in view of 2006/0041576 hereinafter known as Ito.
As to claim 1, Alpert discloses a wireless communication device comprising: one or more processors; one or more memories coupled with the one or more processors; and one or more processor-readable instructions stored in the one or more memories and executable by the one or more processors (Alpert, figure 1, figure 5, [0031]-[0038], wireless devices of the art with memory with instruction and processor) to cause the wireless communication device to: receive a first physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) including a physical layer preamble followed by a data field (Alpert, figure 8, [0068]-[0069], data PPDU being sent by AP to wireless device), the data field including a service field that carries a sequence of scrambler initialization bits (Alpert, figure 19, part 1904, figure 23, [0172], scrambler initialization bits 2304), the service field carrying bandwidth information indicating a bandwidth associated with the first PPDU (Alpert, figure 23, [0172]-[0173], reserved bits in PPDU where bits 0 to 6 used to encode bandwidth); the bandwidth information including both bits of the sequence of scrambler initialization bits and at least one bit of the service field following the sequence of scrambler initialization bits (Alpert, [0168]-0170], two bits of the scrambler initializer and service bit); and transmit a second PPDU based on the bandwidth information carried in the service field of the first PPDU (Alpert, figures 25, [0180]-[0187] using information received in first PPDU to determine communication to send in subsequent PPDU). Alpert does not expressly disclose however Ito discloses the sequence of scrambler initialization bits associated with a synchronization operation of a descrambler of the wireless communication device (Ito, Figure 3, comprising PPDU with scrambler initialization sequence; [0006], scrambled signal to be transmitted and descrambled by a receiving side; [0043], scrambler initialization for synchronization).
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 Alpert to include the limitations of a sequence of scrambler initialization bits associated with a synchronization operation of a descrambler of the wireless communication device as taught by Ito. Scrambler information is used to associate a signal or message with a particular device, that can descramble a the signal or message and perform synchronization to associate with a network.
As to claim 2, Alpert discloses wherein the service field comprises at least three bits (Alpert, [0206], service field with 3 or more bits).
As to claim 4, Alpert discloses wherein the both bits of the sequence of scrambler initialization bits are located in a sixth and a seventh bit position of the service field and the at least one bit following the sequence of scrambler initialization bits is located in an eighth bit position of the service field (Alpert, figure 19, 20 and 23, [0173], scrambler bits plus at least an addition 8th bit).
As to claim 5, Alpert discloses wherein the bandwidth information indicates that the bandwidth associated with the first PPDU is equal to 320 MHz (Alpert, [0070], 320 MHz PPDU).
As to claim 9, Alpert discloses wherein the first PPDU is a request-to-send (RTS) frame and the second PPDU is a clear-to-send (CTS) frame (Alpert, [0178]-[0179], PPDU frame exchanged between and Access Point and User Equipment comprising RTS and CTS as known in the art).
As to claim 10, Alpert discloses wherein the first PPDU is a clear-to-send (CTS) frame and the second PPDU is a data frame (Alpert, [0178]-[0179], PPDU frame exchanged between and Access Point and User Equipment comprising RTS and CTS or another kind of frame such as data frame as known in the art).
As to claims 12, 13, 15 and 16, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1, 2, 4 and 5 respectively above by Alpert in view of Ito.
As to claims 17, 18 and 20, the claims are rejected as applied to claims 1, 2 and 4 respectively above by Alpert in view of Ito.
Claims 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alpert in view of Ito further in view of Chu et al, application 2021/0336720 hereinafter known as Chu.
As to claim 6, Alpert and Ito disclose the wireless communication device of claim 1. Alpert and Ito do not disclose however Chu discloses wherein the at least one bit of the service field carries the bandwidth information based at least in part on a capability of the wireless communication device (Chu, [0098], indicating support of bandwidth based on capability).
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 Alpert and Ito to include the limitations of a wherein the at least one bit of the service field carries the bandwidth information based at least in part on a capability of the wireless communication device as taught by Chu. Bandwidth information is routinely based in the art on disparate capabilities of devices so the bandwidth can be provisioned accordingly.
As to claim 7, Alpert and Ito disclose the wireless communication device of claim 1. Alpert and Ito do not disclose however Chu discloses wherein the service field further includes a second bit, following the sequence of scrambler initialization bits, that carries parity check information associated with at least a portion of the service field (Chu, [0100], reserved bits used as parity check).
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 Alpert and Ito to include the limitations of wherein the service field further includes a second bit, following the sequence of scrambler initialization bits, that carries parity check information associated with at least a portion of the service field as taught by Chu. Parity bits are used in messages to check validity of a message so mitigating methods could be employed to correct errors in messages.
As to claim 8, Alpert and Ito disclose the wireless communication device of claim 1. Alpert and Ito do not disclose however Chu discloses wherein, to transmit the second PPDU, the one or more processor-readable instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the wireless communication device to: transmit the second PPDU responsive to reception of the first PPDU, the second PPDU having a second bandwidth that is less than or equal to a first bandwidth associated with the first PPDU (Chu, [0077], [0079], [0085,[0087],figure 5G and Figure 5I, teaching where CTS bandwidth is less than, narrower than RTS bandwidth).
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 Alpert and Ito to include the limitations of wherein, to transmit the second PPDU, the one or more processor-readable instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the wireless communication device to: transmit the second PPDU responsive to reception of the first PPDU, the second PPDU having a second bandwidth that is less than or equal to a first bandwidth associated with the first PPDU as taught by Chu. Allocating CTS lower than RTS helps avoid collisions with other communications that may be occurring at the same time.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 11, 14, 19 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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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/MOHAMMED S CHOWDHURY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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