DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the original application filed on April 22, 2025.
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 § 102
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chu (US Pub. No. 2022/0240264).
As per claim 1 Chu discloses:
A wireless access point comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to, individually or collectively, perform an operation comprising:
Broadcasting a message comprising a portion of a High Priority Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (HiP EDCA) policy of the wireless access point; (paragraph 68 of Chu, EDCA parameter set element for NSEP is carried in the Beacon frames transmitted by the AP (MLD))
Providing a user device access to a transmission medium using HiP EDCA according to the HiP EDCA policy. (Abstract or Chu, determine that the second device supports the HP service through negotiation; and transmit an HP priority access response frame to the first device enabling HP traffic transmission by the first device).
Claim 15 is rejected under the same reason set forth in rejection of claim 1.
As per claim 2 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises: receiving, from the user device, a request to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA after broadcasting the message; setermining that the request complies with the HiP EDCA policy of the wireless access point; and in response to determining that the request complies with the HiP EDCA policy, transmitting a response to the user device granting permission to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA. (Abstract of Chu, receive a HP priority access request frame from the first device configured to request HP services; determine that the second device supports the HP service through negotiation; and transmit an HP priority access response frame to the first device enabling HP traffic transmission by the first device).
Claima 16 and 20 are rejected under the same reason set forth in rejection of claim 2.
As per claim 3 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the operation further comprises: receiving, from a second user device, a second request to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA; determining that the second request fails to comply with the HiP EDCA policy; and in response to determining that the request fails to comply with the HiP EDCA policy, transmitting a second response to the second user device, wherein the second response indicates an adjustment to the second request. (Abstract of Chu, wherein the first EDCA parameters support the HP service; announce second EDCA parameters for a second device associated with the AP that does not support the HP service; receive a HP priority access request frame from the first device configured to request HP services; determine that the second device supports the HP service through negotiation; and transmit an HP priority access response frame to the first device enabling HP traffic transmission by the first device).
Claim 17 is rejected under the same reason set forth in rejection of claim 3.
As per claim 4 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the operation further comprises, in response to determining that the user device is violating the HiP EDCA policy, at least one of: revoking permission to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA; or disassociating with the user device. (Paragraph 54 of Chu, priority access may be provided to system resources for a limited set of authorized users during network congestion. This priority access will allow preferred access to the wireless medium during network congestion and/or failures to establish a data session. Only a limited set of users may be allowed that is a small fraction of the overall user base. This limited set of users will be authorized users who are identified to receive such a service).
Claim 18 is rejected under the same reason set forth in rejection of claim 4.
As per claim 5 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the request identifies one or more traffic types or one or more traffic flows and wherein determining that the request complies with the HiP EDCA policy comprises determining that the HiP EDCA policy allows access to the transmission medium using HiP EDCA for the one or more traffic types or the one or more traffic flows. (Paragraph 72 of Chu, the specification rules only allows the NSEP service for the selected TIDs/ACs. The other TIDs/ACs will use the backoff parameters of the normal EDCA parameter set).
Claim 19 is rejected under the same reason set forth in rejection of claim 5.
As per claim 6 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 5, wherein the response grants permission to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA for a subset of the one or more traffic types or a subset of the one or more traffic flows. (Paragraph 54 of Chu, priority access may be provided to system resources for a limited set of authorized users during network congestion. This priority access will allow preferred access to the wireless medium during network congestion and/or failures to establish a data session. Only a limited set of users may be allowed that is a small fraction of the overall user base. This limited set of users will be authorized users who are identified to receive such a service).
As per claim 7 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 5, wherein the one or more traffic types include one or more of access category identifiers or one or more traffic identifiers. (Paragraph 72 of Chu, the specification rules only allows the NSEP service for the selected TIDs/ACs. The other TIDs/ACs will use the backoff parameters of the normal EDCA parameter set).
As per claim 8 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the request requests access to the transmission medium over a first link and wherein the operation further comprises: receiving, from a second user device, a second request to access the transmission medium using HiP EDCA over a second link; and determining that the second request complies with a second HiP EDCA policy for the second link different from the HiP EDCA policy. (Abstract of Chu, wherein the first EDCA parameters support the HP service; announce second EDCA parameters for a second device associated with the AP that does not support the HP service; receive a HP priority access request frame from the first device configured to request HP services; determine that the second device supports the HP service through negotiation; and transmit an HP priority access response frame to the first device enabling HP traffic transmission by the first device).
As per claim 9 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein transmitting the response to the user device is further based on the request conforming with a resource levels limit. (Paragraph 54 of Chu, priority access may be provided to system resources for a limited set of authorized users during network congestion. This priority access will allow preferred access to the wireless medium during network congestion and/or failures to establish a data session. Only a limited set of users may be allowed that is a small fraction of the overall user base. This limited set of users will be authorized users who are identified to receive such a service).
As per claim 10 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the response comprises a limitation on an amount or rate of HiP EDCA usage. (Paragraph 65 of Chu, the ECWmin and ECWmax values are each four bits and are used to calculate the minimum and maximum contention window CWmin and CWmax, respectively. The TXOP limit field 355 provides the amount of time allowed to each AC during a TXOP. Each unit value in the TXOP Limit field is equivalent to 32 micro-seconds).
As per claim 11 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 2, wherein the request is a stream classification service (SCS) request and wherein the response is an SCS response. (Paragraph 79 of Chu, the TSPEC with NSEP indication is carried in a stream classification service (SCS) Request/Response or add traffic stream (ADDTS)Request/Response exchanges).
As per claim 12 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 1, wherein the HiP EDCA policy indicates at least one of: whether HiP EDCA is enabled or disabled; (paragraph 57 of Chu, NSEP priority access may be indicated using an action frame that may include request and response action frames for enabling/disabling the NSEP priority access).
A number of transmission failures that should be experienced before HiP EDCA usage should be allowed; one or more access categories (ACs) to which traffic should belong to use HiP EDCA; one or more traffic identifiers (TIDs) to which traffic should belong to use HiP EDCA; A number of allowed consecutive HiP EDCA attempts; a type of frames for which HiP EDCA usage is allowed; whether flow level negotiation should be used to use HiP EDCA; or whether negotiation with the wireless access point for use of HiP EDCA for traffic that does not comply with the HiP EDCA policy is supported. (paragraph 54 of Chu, priority access will allow preferred access to the wireless medium during network congestion and/or failures to establish a data session) and (paragraph 15 of Chu, various embodiments are described, wherein the first EDCA parameters includes EDCA parameters for all of the traffic IDs (TID)/access categories (AC) associated with the first device, and wherein the first device determines which of the TIDs/ACs associated with the first device use the first EDCA parameters).
As per claim 13 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 1, wherein the message comprises one or more of: an arbitration inter-frame space number to be used for HiP EDCA contention; a minimum contention window to be used for HiP EDCA contention; a maximum contention window maximum to be used for HiP EDCA contention; or a transmission opportunity limit. (Paragraph 21 of Chu, various embodiments are described, wherein: the first and second EDCA parameters include AIFSN, CWmin, and CWmax values, wherein the AIFSN, CWmin, and CWmax values of the second device are smaller than the AIFS, CWmin, and CWmax values for the third device).
As per claim 14 Chu discloses:
The wireless access point of Claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises providing the HiP EDCA policy in one or more of a beacon frame, a probe response frame, a fast initial link setup discovery frame, an association response frame, a reassociation response frame, or an SCS response frame. (Paragraph 67 of Chu, the EDCA parameters for NESP service are different from and provide a higher priority than the CWMin, CWmax, AIFSN of respective ACs of normal EDCA parameter set in a Beacon frame or Association Response frame (i.e., the EDCA Parameter Set element) for the STAs that does not enable NSEP service).
Conclusion
The prior art made or record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure are Raleigh (US 8,793,758) and Hart (US Pub. No. 2025/0330814).
Raleigh’s references discloses:
A device that detects an attempted installation of update software on the device, the update software purporting to be a modification, update, or replacement of an application program that assists the device in accessing a data service over a wireless access network, obtain an update-software credential associated with the update software, obtain an application credential associated with the application program, determine whether the update-software credential matches the application credential, and allow the update software to be installed if the update-software credential matches the application credential, determine that the application program is initiating or attempting to initiate communication over the wireless access network, and based on the determination that the application program is initiating or attempting to initiate communication over the wireless access network, apply a policy when the application program initiates or attempts to initiate communication over the wireless access network.
Hart’s references discloses:
Described herein is a network that uses a high priority enhanced distributed channel access (HiP EDCA) policy. A wireless access point includes one or more memories and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories. The one or more processors, individually or collectively, perform an operation that includes broadcasting a message comprising a portion of a HiP EDCA policy of the wireless access point and providing a user device access to a transmission medium using HiP EDCA according to the HiP EDCA policy.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TESHOME HAILU whose telephone number is (571)270-3159. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 a.m. - 5 p.m..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ali Shayanfar can be reached at (571) 270-1050. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TESHOME HAILU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2434
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