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 .
Detailed Action
Claims 23-42 are presenting for examination.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23-27 are allowed in view of the prior art of record.
. The prior art of record doesn’t teach a method comprising: receiving, by a first media access control (MAC) layer, a buffer status report (BSR) from a first device; detecting a congestion event associated with a traffic flow based on the BSR; and providing, by the first MAC layer, a congestion experienced (CE) indication to a second MAC layer of a second device or to an upper layer.
35 U.S.C. 102 Rejection
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 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 –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 28-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) & 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Park (US Pat. No. 9,167,604).
As to claim 36, Park shows in Fig 11, an apparatus comprising: processor circuitry to:
detect a congestion event associated with a logical channel (LCH); see col 15, lines 63-64.
generate a media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU) with a subheader, wherein the subheader includes one or more bits set to provide a congestion experienced (CE) indication based on said detecting the congestion event, see col 15, lines 65-67, col 16, lines 7-9; and
output the MAC PDU for transmission, see col 15, lines 65-67; and
interface circuitry coupled with the processor circuitry to enable communication.
As to claim 37, the subheader is followed by a fixed-sized MAC control element, a variable-sized MAC control element, or a MAC service data unit, see Fig 14.
As to claim 38, the congestion event is a first congestion event that indicates the LCH, LCG, or QoS flow is experiencing congestion at a first point in time, see col 15, lines 63-64, col 16, lines 7-9, lines 46-49; and
detect a second congestion event that indicates the LCH, LCG, or QoS flow is not experiencing congestion at a second point in time, see col 16, lines 20-24, lines 57-59, col 17, lines 26-31.
As to claim 39, output a plurality of MAC PDUs having subheaders with the one or more bits set to provide the CE indication for transmission in a time period between the first point in time and the second point in time, see col 20, lines 38-40, lines 62-67, col 21, lines 1-2, col 23, lines 8-14.
As to claim 40, provide, by one or more layers above a MAC layer, upper layer CE indications in one or more packets based on detection of the congestion event, see col 15, lines 65-67, col 16, lines 7-9.
.
As to claim 41, the CE indication is a CE-set indication to indicate congestion is experienced by the LCH, LCG, or QoS flow or is a CE-clear indication to indicate congestion is not experienced by the LCH, LCG, or QoS flow, see col 15, lines 65-67, col 16, lines 7-9.
As to claim 42, perform flow control based on detection of the congestion event, see col 16, lines 2-4, col 18, lines 26-29.
As to claims 28-35, the claims are similar in scope to claims 36-42, and they are rejected under the same rationale.
Therefore, it can be seen from paragraphs 5-12 that Park anticipates claims 28-42.
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/MOUSTAFA M MEKY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457 09/04/2026
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