DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-12 are examined and pending.
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
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.
Claims 1, 2, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jiang et al. (U.S. 2023/0262807 A1, hereinafter “Jiang”) in view of Smith et al. (U.S. 2023/0094149 A1, hereinafter “Smith”).
As to claims 1, 11 and 12, Jiang discloses a communication apparatus comprising:
at least one memory that stores a set of instructions; and at least one processor that executes the instructions, the instructions, when executed, causing the communication apparatus to perform operations comprising: performing control to establish a plurality of links with a different communication apparatus by a Multi-Link function (para. [0008]; discloses AP MLD provides a plurality of links and establishes communication with a non-AP MLD) ;
setting TID-to-Link Mapping which allocates Traffic Identifiers (TIDs) to the established plurality of links (para.[0008]; discloses communication that includes first mapping between a plurality of traffic identifiers (TIDs) and the plurality of links);
However, Jiang does not disclose the apparatus wherein performing determination processing for determining whether a link state of each of one or more links with the TIDs allocated thereto is a link state in which a communication quality needed for communicating a specific type of data corresponding to a specific category has been ensured and in a case where, as a result of the determination processing, it is determined that one or more links to which TIDs in the specific category are mapped are not in the link state in which the communication quality needed for communicating the specific type of data has been ensured, resetting the TID-to-Link Mapping in such a manner that the specific type of data is not transmitted via the one or more links determined not to be in the link state in which the communication quality has been ensured.
In an analogous art, Smith discloses the apparatus discloses performing determination processing for determining whether a link state of each of one or more links with the TIDs allocated thereto is a link state in which a communication quality needed for communicating a specific type of data corresponding to a specific category has been ensured (para. [0053]; discloses the client device roams across plurality of cells, a channel state quality of the selected link may decrease causing performance degradation for client device) ; and
in a case where, as a result of the determination processing, it is determined that one or more links to which TIDs in the specific category are mapped are not in the link state in which the communication quality needed for communicating the specific type of data has been ensured, resetting the TID-to-Link Mapping in such a manner that the specific type of data is not transmitted via the one or more links determined not to be in the link state in which the communication quality has been ensured (para. [0053]; discloses data traffic for one of the ACs may be re-directed to the TIDs associated with the other, non-selected link of Multi-AP MLD entity (e.g. Redirect traffic from first link to second link) .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Jiang by incorporating a function to detect channel quality and redirect the TIDs to an updated link as taught by Smith in order to help redirection of traffic to provide a form of seamless roaming. (Smith, see para. [0053])
As to claim 2, Jiang-Smith discloses the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific category is Video (Smith, para. [0031]; discloses the TID maybe video).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cherian et al. (U.S. 2021/0282047 A1) discloses the method, device and system wherein the non-AP MLD can receive an indication of an association identifier (AID) associated with the non-AP MLD, wherein the indication of the AID indicates whether an AP has BUs for the non-AP MLD, determine one or more links associated with one or more TIDs based on a mapping of a plurality of TIDs, including the one or more TIDs, to a plurality of links, including the one or more links, receive the BUs associated with the one or more TIDs from the AP on the determined links.
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/JOE CHACKO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457
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